MASTER 

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NO.  92-81126 


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A  UTHOR : 


MARTYN,  CARLOS 


TITLE: 


HISTORY  OF  THE 
ENGLISH  PURITANS 

PLACE: 

NEW  YORK 

DA  TE : 

1867 


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CONTENTS. 


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CHAPTEK  L 

The  epoch  of  Christian  democracy — Characteristics  of  the  nine- 
teenth century — The  distinctive  lesson  of  the  Reformation — 
Puritanism  the  inevitable  outgrowth  of  the  pacification  of  the 
sixteenth  century — The  vilifiers  of  the  Puritans — Puritanism 
the  creator  of  moral  America — Nature  of  history — Preparatory 
eras — Birth  of  English  Christianity — The  merchant-preach- 
ers— The  aborigines  of  Britain — The  Roman  civility — Druid- 
ism — Absence  of  authentic  records  of  the  vicissitudes  of  this 
historic  period  —  The  Saxon  invasion  —  Introduction  of  the 
Tartaric  idolatry  of  the  North — Reintroduction  of  Christian- 
ity— Gregory  the  Great  in  the  Roman  market-place — The  Saxon 
slave-gangs — The  clerical  punster — Ecclesiastical  commission 
under  Augustine — Its  success — Character  of  papal  Christian- 
ity— Causes  of  the  corruption  of  the  Roman  hierarchy — Church 
history  of  the  heptarchy — Reign  of  Alfred — England  esteemed 
the  tfysting-place  of  the  dead — Wretched  condition  of  the 
island — Alfred's  testimony — The  hero-king  founds  schools — 
Establishment  of  Oxford  university — Continental  scholars  in- 
vited into  England — Learning  the  avani  courrier  of  reform    25 


\ 


\ 


I, 


V. 


CHAPTEK  n. 

State  of  England  after  the  death  of  Alfred— St.  Dunstan — His 
career — The  struggle  which  Dunstan  inaugurates  marks  one 
ago  and  moulds  the  succeeding — The  Norman  conquest— Influ- 
ence of  the  Conqueror — Lanfranc's  primacy — His  innovations — 
The  scheme  of  Hildebrand— How  it  was  momentarily  thwarted 
in  England — Rome  bides  her  time,  and  intrigues— Early  British 
literature — Burke's  complaint — Progress  of  the  Roman  usurpa- 
tions— The  papacy,  speaking  through  the  lips  of  Becket,  claims 
the  immunity  of  ecclesiastics  from  the  secular  jurisdiction — 
Disastrous  close  of  the  consequent  controversy — King  John 
alienates  the  sovereignty  of  England,  and  pays  tribute  to  the 
pope — A  phase  of  resistance  to  the  papal  arrogance — Grostete, 
Bradwardine,  Edward  III.,  Wickliff'e— Wickliffe  the  progenitor 


7 


8  CONTENTS. 

of  the  Puritans— His  birth— Broad  scholarship — He  "searches 
the  Scriptures" — He  becomes  convinced  of  the  corruption  of 
Kome,  and  commences  to  proclaim  the  tenets  of  the  primitive 
faith— Four  phases  of  Wickliffe's  public  life— Wickliffe  as  a 
politician — Insolent  claims  of  pope  Urban  V. — Resistance  of 
Edward  m. — Parliament  convened — The  statutes  of  Provisors 
and  Prcemunire— Fuller's  witticism— Wickliffe's  share  in  the 
controversy  — His  ministry— The  Oxford  professor  and  the 
Lutterworth  pastor— Wickliffe  translates  the  Bible  into  Eng- 
lish— Consequent  sensation— A  papist's  protest — Wickliffe  as  a 
theologian— He  proclaims  the  essential  doctrines  of  Protestant- 
ism— Effect  of  his  brave  preaching — Persecution  —  The  Re- 
former's death— Hampden  and  Milton  join  hands  with  Wick- 
liffe and  hj\il  him  as  their  father 38 


CHAPTER  m. 

Four  ascending  steps  of  English  Protestantism— Effect  of  Wick- 
liffe's doctrines— The  agitation  spreads  through  Europe — The 
papacy  lets  slip  her  dogs,  and  hounds  down  "heresy" — Politi- 
cal changes— A  cunning  priest— "The  pelting  of  the  pitiless 
storm"— Violation  of  Wickliffe's  sepulchi-e- The  wars  of  the 
"Roses"— The  first  of  the  Tudors— "Retribution  has  a  foot  of 
velvet,  but  a  hand  of  steel"— Henry  VIII.— A  leaf  from  Boling- 
broke— The  two  tides— Seed-time  of  the  Reformation— English 
apostles— Old  Hugh  Latimer— "The  most  diligentest  bishop 
in  England" — The  distinctive  i^riuciple  of  the  English  Re- 
ioimem— -Animus  of  the  government— Cardinal  Vfolsey —Status 
of  the  king  —  The  ill-omened  marriage — Anne  Boleyn— The 
divorce  struggle— The  mission  to  Rome— Wolsey's  urgency — 
Papal  chicanery — The  king  loses  patience— The  result— Down- 
fall of  Wolsey 49 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Fuller's  summary— Progress  of  the  Reformation  —  Marriage  of 
Henry  VIII.  and  Anne  Boleyn — Action  of  parliament — Popery 
barred  out  of  England  by  statute — The  convocation — An  epi- 
sode which  illustrates  the  benefit  of  an  acquaintance  with  musty 
statutes — How  the  convocation  was  reduced  to  obedience — Act 
of  Supremacy  —  Visitation  of  the  monasteries  —  The  "Bible 
era  "  of  the  Reformation— Activity  of  the  court  of  Rome — The 
papal  bull— Reflections  on  the  origin  of  the  English  Reforma- 
tion— The  rationale  of  Romanism  —  Subtlety  and  flexibility — 
The  grace  of  God  the  only  adequate  weaiwn  of  assault 62 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER  V. 


9 


Character  of  the  age  of  Henry  VIIL-The  rehgious  Babel-First 
reformed  convocation-It  confirms  Henry's  divorce  from  Anne 
Bolevn-Some  facts-The  elaboration  of  a  creed-Latmier  h 
text-The  debate-The  "twilight  religion  "-What  it  settled, 
and  what  it  did  not  settle-Unpopularity  of  the  new  ntual- 
Severitv  of  the  govemment-Emeu^es  broaden  into  rebellion- 
Action  of  a  committee-The  "Six  Articles  "-The  surrender  to 
Rome-The  royal  "power  and  profit"  reformer-Cranmer  and 
Cromwell  protest  -  Lambert's  avio  da  /^- The  victims  of 
-home-bred  popery  "-England  exchanges  popes-Fall  of  Lord 
CromweU-Death  of  Henry  VIU.-The  verdict  of  history-  -    72 

CHAPTER  VI. 

..The  king  is  dead ;  long  Hve  the  king '."-Edward  VI. -The  mar- 
vellous  character  of  the  baby  king-Constitution  of  the  new 
government -Cranmer  becomes  the  leader  of  the  Reforma- 
tion-Repeal  of  the  "Six  Article8"-The  "open  sesame    oi 
tiie  new  r^j/ime-Peter  Martyr  and  Martin  Bucer  in  England- 
The  ecclesiastical  system  of  Henry  VHI.  is  remodelled--Pro. 
gramme  of  procedure-The  royal  visitation-Cramner  s  "hom- 
ilies "-Conformity  enforced-Imprisonment  of  Gardiner  and 
Bonner-Unsettled  condition  of  religious  faith  in  Lngland- 
The  expediency  and  justice  of  toleration-Plan  to  secure  rehg- 
ious unity-Servility  of  the  old  Enghsh  Parliaments -The 
-iconoclastic  ParUament "-Its  glorious  achievements- Book 
of  Common  Prayer  of  the  Church  of  England-The  Liturgy- 
Enforcement  of  the  Service-book  by  harsh  legislation -Am- 
madversions-The  victims-Joan  of  Kent-Cranmer  s  course- 
Bumet  censures  him-The  princess  Marj-Popular  tumults- 
Birth  of  Non-conformity ' 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  bond  between  church  and  stato-Universal  belief  in  the  right 
of  government  to  dictate  in  religious  matters  -  Jewish  an^ 
?tomaI  Drecedents-The  new  regime  retains  many  of  the  ecclc- 
"/qulp^^^^^^^^  of  the  old-It  parts  with  the  essence  ox 
pope^^^^^  results  of  the  use  of  the  new  Service-book- 

^h^aTtempt  to  enforce  absolute  uniformity  the  fatal  error  of  he 
church-and-state  reformers-The  7-^--\«.^;:^3^^^^^^^ 
Bishop  Hooper-His  antecedents-Appomted  bishop  of  G  ou- 
^steT-Refuses  to  accept  that  see-Reasons  for  his  rejection 


-1  / 


-;:!■• 


10 


CONTENTS. 


of  the  dignity — Action  of  the  king  and  council — Bishop  Eid- 
Isy — Eeasons  for  the  retention  of  the  old  vestments— Ihe  plan 
in  Ridley's  argnment — The  debate  contains  the  gems  of  Puri- 
tanism— Cranmer's  views  —  Bucer  and  Martyr  appealed  to — 
Their  decision — Advice  of  the  Genevan  doctors — Hooper's  un- 
willingness to  conform  provokes  his  persecution — His  impris- 
onment— The  king's  decree — Eventual  settlement  of  the  con- 
troversy by  a  compromise— In  after  years  Cranmer  and  Ridley 
agree  with  Hooper's  estimate  of  the  vestments — The  importance 
assigned  to  preaching  one  of  the  marked  features  of  Edward's 
reign — The  six  most  zealous  and  ready  preachers  of  the  time — 
The  fii-st  Anglo-Saxon  Tract  Society — Approach  of  black  days — 
Death  of  Edward  VI. — England  given  over  to  demoniacs-  -    90 

CHAPTEK  Vni. 

Political  situation  on  the  death  of  Edward — The  will  of  Henry 
Vni. — The  young  king's  ruse — An  unlawful  testament— Coro- 
nation of  Lady  Jane  Grey — Why  the  conspiracy  was  defeated — 
Mary's  accession — Mary's  bigotry  has  four  phases — How  the 
queen  cozened  the  Suffolk  men — Release  of  the  Romanist  bish- 
ops from  the  Tower — The  proclamation — The  inhibition — The 
Protesbmt  pulpits  shackled — Reformers  bastilled  —The  foreign 
Protestants  resident  in  England  driven  out — Self-exile  of  the 
English  reformers— The  muddle — Coronation  of  the  queen — 
Convention  of  Parhament — The  house  packed  by  bribery  and 
menace— Abolition  of  the  reformatory  statutes — Romanism  once 
more  legalized  in  England — The  convocation — Bonner  loses 
temper — "You  have  the  word,  but  we  have  the  sword" — Eng- 
land and  Rome  reconciled — The  cardinal's  benediction — Resur- 
rection of  the  statutes  for  the  execution  of  heretics  by  fire— The 
dance  of  death  begins—  Gardiner  and  Bonner  the  twin  jackals 
of  the  hunt— The  Euglish  court  of  Inquisition— Cranmer,  Rid- 
ley, and  Latimer  baited  and  abused  at  Oxford— The  logical 
dilemma— ^utos  da  fi— John  Rogers'  martyi-dom- Old  Smith- 
field— The  rendezvous  of  the  fire  goblins— Scenes  at  the  stake 

The  heroes  of  chivalry,  and  the  heroes  of  the  faith — Martyrdom 
of  Hooper  at  Gloucester— Bradford  ascends  to  heaven  in  a 
chariot  of  fire— The  fires  of  Smithfield  broaden  over  England — 
Ridley  and  Latimer  martyred  at  one  stake  in  Oxlbrd— Gardi- 
ner death-smitten— Execution  of  Archbishop  Cranmer— "Oh 
that  unworthy  hand,  that  unworthy  hand  "—Intolerance  broods 
over  England— Rome  must  persecute  to  be  consistent— Perse- 
cution does  not  choke  heresy— The  throttled  truth  still  finds 
proselytes 103 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTEE  IX. 


11 


The  self-banished  reformers— The  Frankfort  congregation— Their 
cordial  reception— The  English  Protestants  share  the  chapel 
of  the  French  Huguenots— Conditions  of  the  grant— The  new 
church  government— The  packet  of  letters— Response  of  the 
neighboring  English  refugees— The  Frankfortites  grieved  but 
firm— They  appoint  John  Knox  their  pastor— The  exiled  ad- 
herents of  the  Established  church  refuse  to  fellowship  the  non- 
conforming church  —  The  appeal  to  Calvin — Verdict  of  the 
Genevan  doctor— The  debate— The  decision— Dr.  Cox  and  his 
colleagues  arrive  in  Frankfort — He  determines  to  compel  con- 
formity to  the  English  ritual— Consequent  troubles— Interven- 
tion of  the  Frankfort  magistrates— The  Coxians  beaten— Cox 
denounces  Knox  to  the  city  senate  as  a  traitor  to  the  emperor — 
Knox  requested  to  leave  the  town— Arbitrary  course  of  the 
Coxians  —  Vain  protest  of  the  non-conformists  —  Cox  writes 
Calvin— The  reply- The  old  congregation  quit  Frankfort  for 
Basle  and  Geneva— Knox  forms  a  new  church  in  Geneva- 
After  history  of  the  Frankfort  exiles— These  troubles  the  infant 
cry  of  Puritanism— The  epithet  "  schismatics  "—Ecclesiastical 
opinions  of  the  fathers  of  the  English  Reformation— The  pros 
and  cons— The  two  parties  in  the  English  church— How  the 
exiles  "made  shift  to  subsist  through  these  hard  times  "—Death 
of  Mary— The  release  from  banishment 124: 

CHAPTER  X. 

England  awakes  from  her  nightmare— Events  which  preceded  the 
coronation  of  Elizabeth— The  unhappy  situation  on  her  acces- 
sion—Elizabeth dissembles,  and  preserved  for  a  time  the  status 
^ifo- Parliament  assembles  at  Westminster— Its  bias  towards 
reform— Repeal  of  the  papal  legislation  of  Mary's  reign— The 
new  act  of  supremacy— The  "weak  and  dwindled"  convoca- 
tion—The disputation— The  papists  refuse  to  debate— "They 
only  love  to  have  syllogisms  in  their  mouths,  when  they  have 
swords  in  their  hands  "-*-The  Romanists  ordered  to  take  the 
oath  of  supremacy— The  larger  portion  do  so— Those  who  are 
contumacious  imprisoned— Preparations  made  to  enforce  con- 
formity—Large numbers  of  the  English  Protestants  prefer  the 
Genevan  and  Lutheran  discipline— The  Non-conformists  now 
styled  Puritans- Reason  of  the  nickname— The  Puritans  and 
the  Conformists  agree  in  doctrine  but  quarrel  over  discipline- 
animus  of  the  queen  — Revision  of  the  Liturgy— Parliament 
places  the  law  of  uniformity  upon  the  statute-book— The  court 


12 


CONTENTS. 


of  High  Commission — Its  abnormal  character — The  govern 
ment  enforce  uniformity  in  non-essentials  by  penal  legislation — 
The  rock  on  which  the  peace  of  the  church  is  split — Keflectionfr— 
The  vacant  sees  filled  by  Protestants  —  Parker  consecrated 
archbishop  of  Canterbury — The  Reformation  settled — Risumi 
of  the  points  of  agreement  and  disagreement  between  the  Con- 
formists and  the  Puritans  in  the  church  of  England — Neither 
party  believes  in  toleration — The  tendency  of  Puritanism — lis 
spirituality ■ 137 

CHAPTER  XL 

Two  principles — Distinction  between  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical 
jurisdictions — Elizabeth  "ransacks consciences" — The  bishops 
and  the  royal  council  wink  at  the  evasion  of  the  Uniformity 
act — The  queen's  rage  thereat — End  of  the  policy  of  delay — 
Zeal  of  Archbishop  Parker — A  record  of  heroism — London  the 
Gibraltar  of  Puritanism  —  The  citation — "In  the  gap" — Sha- 
drach,  Meshach,  and  Abednego — The  killed  consciences — The 
bureau  of  spies — The  license  system — The  parish  pulpits  closed 
to  Non-conformists — The  ancient  privilege  of  Cambridge — The 
Puritans,  shackled  in  the  pulpit,  turn  to  the  press — The  war  of 
pamphlets — A  Star-chamber  decree  muzzles  the  press— Faith 
in  God  a  distinctive  principle  of  Puritanism — The  Separatists — 
The  majority  of  the  Puritans  still  adhere  to  the  church  of  Eng- 
land— The  Puritans,  whether  Separatists  or  church-of-England 
men,  relentlessly  harried  by  the  government — Mary  of  Scots  in 
England — Knox  runs  the  Scottish  Keformation  in  the  Genevan 
mould — The  Scotch  Presbyterians  and  the  English  Puritans 
clasp  hands — ^Elizabeth's  disgust— Detention  of  Mary  of  Scots  in 
a  gilded  imprisonment — The  portentous  European  sky — Rome's 
reactive  assault  upon  the  Protestant  idea — France — The  Neth- 
erlands—  England  swarms  with  popish  emissaries  —  Jesuit 
masqueraders — Rome's  "missionary"'  colleges— The  quelled 
imeuies — The  brutum  fvlmen — The  Chinese  gong  of  excommuni- 
cation frightens  no  one — Continued  persecution  of  the  Puri- 
tans— Elizabeth's  Don  Quixotism «■ 152 


CHAPTER  Xn. 

English  policy  squints  towards  the  fagot  and  the  stake — Eliza- 
beth's ruse — The  Anabaptists  —  Two  martyrs  —  Britain  cries 
veto  —  The  spinster  queen  changes  her  policy — Legislation 
against  Rome — Elizabeth  and  the  French  ambassador— Why 
the  queen  was  nearer  akin  than  cousin  to  the  pope — John  Fox, 


V 


CONTENTS. 


13 


the  martyrologist  — New  phase  of  the  controversy  between 
Puritanism  and^he  church— Thomas  Cartwright— He  inveighs 
against  the  Establishment  —  His  ra^ionaZc— Sensation  — Cart- 
wright  expelled  from  the  University  and  driven  beyond  the 
sea — A  new  wonder — A  Romanist  marriage  for  the  queen  on 
the  topis— Sir  Philip  Sidney  remonstrates— Stubbs'  pamphlet- 
Its  punishment  — "There  lies  the  hand  of  a  true  English- 
man"— The  "Admonition  to  Parliament  "—Cartwright  returns 
from  the  continent,  and  renews  the  controversy  with  Whitgift 
on  "the  fittest  form  of  church  government" — The  Olympian 
game  of  words— Arguments  pro  and  con  —  Imprisonment  of 
the  authors  of  the  "Admonition"— Popular  feeling  against  the 
bishops  — A  glance  at  Parliament  —  Strickland's  motion  — Its 
results — Wentworth's  brave  speech — Elizabeth  "dashes"  a 
reform  bill— The  Puritans  and  the  Parliament— The  queen's 
rage  —  Cartwright's  incarceration  —  Cartwright  not  a  Separa- 
tist— Elizabeth's  inconsistency — News  of  the  massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew  reaches  England -  165 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Death  of  Parker,  archbishop  of  Canterbury — His  character — ^Ed- 
mund Grindal  succeeds  him  in  the  primacy — The  "Prophesy- 
ings"— The  queen  oflfended— Her  coiicio  ad  cZerwrn— Grindal's 
letter — The  primate  sequestered — Consequent  scandal — Grin- 
dal, broken  and  blind,  dies  in  1582— His  character— Whitgift 
succeeds  him  in  the  see  of  Canterbury — He  resolves  "to  open 
the  eyes  of  Non-conformists  by  power"— Vital  piety  lies  tor- 
pid— The  supply  of  preachers  fails— Cause  and  effect — Eliza 
beth  considers  "all  pious  people  as  embraced  under  the  nick- 
name 'Puritan'" — Strype  on  the  witness  stand— Philosophy  of 
great  moral  and  political  movements— The  "Familists" — The 
"Brownists" — Renewed  persecutions— Smithfield  again — The 
use  of  enthusiasts— The  policy  of  Rome 178 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

England  at  large  does  not  sympathize  with  the  arbitrary  action 
of  the  government — The  nurseries  of  the  "great  rebellion" — 
Patience  of  the  Puritans— Romanist  plots— The  Spanish  Ar- 
mada— Profanation  of  the  Lord's  day — Parliament  attempts  to 
interfere,  but  is  snubbed  by  the  queen— Renewal  two  years  later 
of  a  Sabbatarian  controversy — Whitgift  and  the  Lord  Chief-jus- 
tice Popham  oppose  the  "Sabbath  doctrine" — The  controversy 
changes  base— Richard  Hooker  and  Walter  Travers — "Schism 
within  the  Temple  " — A  page  from  Fuller— Some  recent  charges 


/ 


\( 


li  CONTENTS. 

against  the  course  of  the  Puritans  in  Elizabeth's  reign— Kebut- 
ting  evidence— Danger  of  a  union  between  church  and  state- 
Comparative  cahn  in  the  latter  years  of  the  great  queen's  rule— 
Keasons— Death  of  Elizabeth  Tudor 193 

CHAPTEK  XV. 

The  English  crown  passes  from  the  house  of  Tudor  to  the  Stu- 
arts-Antecedents of  James  L-Thongh  bred  a  Presbj^rian, 
he  gives  the  bishops  the  right  hand  of  feUowship— JKn</crff//— 
James'  despicable  character— A  swearer,  a  dissembler,  a  drunk- 
ard, a  coward,  and  a  liar— The  two  petitions— James  in  Lon- 
don-The  metropolis  plague-smitten-The  king's  proclamation 
for  a  conference  on  religious  matters  at  Hampton  Court— The 
gathering— The  leaders  of  the  church  party— The  Puritan  rep- 
resentatives-First day  of  the  conference -Second  day— Third 
day— The  king's  conduct  through  the  disputation  —  General 
dissatisfaction  with  the  "mock  conference"  — James'  second 
proclamation  enforcing  conformity  —  Death  of  Cartwrisht  — 
Death  of  Whitgift glo 

CHxVPTEK  XVI. 

Bancroft  succeeds  Whitgift  in  the  see  of  Canterbury-He  is  "most 
stiff  and  stem  to  press  conformity  "-The  differences  between 
the  two  wings  of  the  church  become  implacable— James'  par- 
hamentary  offer  "to  meet  the  papists  in  the  mid-way"— The 
Puritans  rated  as  "insufferable  in  any  well-governed  common- 
wealth"— The  Ptomauists  are  styled  the  king's  "faithful  sub- 
jects"—The  Puritans  "worthy  of  fire  for  their  opinions  "—The 
convocation -All  Independent  churches  anathematized  and 
abandoned  to  the  wrath  of  God-The  Unes  ckawn— The 'king 
and  clergy  on  one  side,  the  Puritans  and  Parliament  on  the 
other-James  wishes  for  a  hermitage-Unique  petition  of  the 
"Pamihsts"— The  gunpowder  plot— The  king's  "faithful  sub- 
jects" conspire  to  blow  him  into  atoms— "Treason  without  a 
Jesuit,  is  like  a  dry  wjdl  without  either  lime  or  mortar"— The 
plotters  at  work-The  vault  beneath  the  Parhament-house- 
Interruptions— All  is  ready— The  letter— The  search— The  dis- 
covery—The execution— "Heaven  defeats  heU  of  its  desired 


success  ■ 


221 


CHAPTEK  XVn. 


A  severe  penal  code  enacted  against  the  Komanists^Severity  soon 
relaxed— Anecdote— Romanists'  cells  refiUed  with  Puritans- 
Controversy  among  the  Non-conformists  about  the  poUoy  and 


V 


./ 


' 


CONTENTS. 


15 


lawfulness  of  separation— Treatment  of  the  Separatists— The 
yeomen  of  Yorkshire,  Nottingham,  and  Lincoln— The'  gospel 
of  these  Puritans— They  propose  to  emigrate— The  departure 
for  Holland— Life  in  the  Netherlands— Homesickness  — Sor- 
rows—The  determination— Petition  the  king  for  permission  to 
colonize  America— The  "promise  of  neglect "—Eeply  of  the 
exiles— All  ready— Bobinson's  farewell — The  embarkation  at 
Delft-Haven— Touching  story  of  the  exile  voyage— Arrival  of 
the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  Rock— Eeflections— The  king's  plea 
for  the  prerogative— Encouragement  of  Sunday  sports— James 
patronizes  Arminianism— The  Arminian  divines  become  the 
stoutest  champions  of  the  prerogative— Distinction  between 
church  and  state  Puritans— Fusion  of  the  Puritans  and  the 
Constitutionalists  — Home  and  foreign  affairs— 7?^su7n<?  of  the 

later  years  of  James  First's  reign— Death  of  the  king— The  old 

901 
and  the  new  eras ^^^ 

CHAPTER  XVm. 

The  situation  on  the  accession  of  Charies  I.— Philosophy  of  the 
maturing  revolution— Character  of  the  new  king— His  unfor- 
tunate education  — His  aversion  to  Puritanism  —  His  attach- 
ment to  absolutism -His  "habit  of  duplicity  "-The  journey 
to  Spain  — The  French  marriage  —  Charles  makes  a  model  of 
the  Paris  and  Madrid  monarchies— He  fails  to  comprehend  his 
epoch— His  first  Pariiament— The  "senate  of  kings  "—Radical 
disagreement  between  the  king  and  Commons— Dissolution  of 
the  Pariiament-The  "forced"  loan— Failure  of  an  expedition 
against  Cadiz  —  Pariiament  reassembled  —  The  royal  trick- 
Firmness  of  the  Commons— Imprisonment  of  several  members 
of  the  lower  House— The  king's  threat -Excitement  of  the 
Commons— The  House  proclaims  its  ullimatum—The  sine  qua 
non  of  the  Lords— The  king  beaten— Parliament  falls  upon  its 
grievances— Encroachments  of  Rome  — House  committee  on 
religion  snubbed  by  the  king-The  debate  transferred  to  the 
street -The  proclamation  — Purittms  attempt  to  Wnte  m  de- 
fence of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles-Gagged  by  the  exceptional 
courts-Petition  of  the  booksellers-Charies  prorogues  the  two 
Houses— His  new  role 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  kmg  decrees  another  forced  loan-High-handed  and  unlaw- 
fid  efforts  to  enforce  it— Gentlemen  of  birth  and  character 
imprisoned-The  poorer  districts  dragoonaded-The  demand 


(; 


u 


^  I 


_x^  ^-- 


16 


CONTENTS. 


h 


/ 


on  London  —  First  attempt  to  collect  "sliip-money"— Keply 
of  the  citizens — Response  of  the  conrt  —  Passive  obedience 
preached— Archbishop  Abbot  disgraced — His  puritanical  repu- 
tation— The  Puritans  make  the  national  privileges  a  part  of 
their  religion — The  court  reaps  a  lean  crop  of  money — Charles 
passes  from  one  usurpation  to  another — The  question  of  bail- 
ment stirred— Conduct  of  the  judges — The  king  compounds 
with  the  Eomanists— A  fatal  policy — The  Puritan  camp  be- 
comes the  Protestant  rendezvous — War  with  France — Caused 
by  the  licentious  intrigues  of  the  duke  of  Buckingham — A 
protest  which  history  scouts — Total  failure  of  Buckingham's 
expedition  to  relieve  Rochelle  —  Consequent  excitement  in 
England — Buckingham's  withering  reception — The  king  per- 
plexed—  Sir  Robert  Colton's  advice  —  Parliament  once  more 
assembled — The  king's  opening  speech — He  threatens  to  resort 
again  to  the  "neio  counsels" — Inflexibility  of  the  Commons — 
They  resolve  to  "proclaim  their  liberties" — High  character  of 
the  members  of  the  House — Coke  —  Wentworth  —  Hollis  — 
Pym — The  Commons  refuse  to  grant  Charles  a  subsidy  until 
he  signs  a  bill  of  rights— Consequent  fierce  struggle — Triumph 
of  the  House — The  preachers  of  passive  obedience  reprimand- 
ed— Manwaring  cited  before  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Lords — 
Two  new  remonstrances— The  king  loses  patience  and  pro- 
rogues Parliament — Assassination  of  the  duke  of  Bucking- 
ham—  Charles  thrown  back  into  tyranny  —  He  bestows  his 
favor  upon  the  adversaries  of  Parliament — The  remodelled 
cabinet  —  Parliament  once  more  in  session — The  budget  of 
grievances — Appointment  of  a  committee  on  religion — Crom- 
well stutters  and  stamps  his  maiden  speech  —  The  tonnage 
and  poundage  question — Sir  John  Elliot's  motion — Uproar  in 
the  House  of  Commons — The  king  orders  his  guard  to  disperse 
the  members — Dissolution  of  the  Parliament — Arrest  and  in- 
carceration of  the  obnoxious  members — A  martyr  to  liberty — 
High  carnival  at  Hampton  Court  and  ^Vhitehall — "The  peo- 
ple's guns  are  spiked" — Cromwell  does  not  take  the  courtier 
view 255 

CHAPTER  XX. 

The  two  leaders  of  English  absolutism  —  Strafford — Laud — The 
statesman  and  the  priest — Risximi  of  the  gradual  change  in 
the  rationale  of  the  English  church  —  Position  and  claims  of 
the  bishops  on  the  accession  of  Charles  I. — Laud  organizes  a 
new  crusade  for  uniformity — Details  —  Laud's  innovations  — 
Their  character  and  object — Partiality  shown  to  Romanists — 
Treatment  of  the  Puritans — Anticipations  of  the  recognition 


CONTENTS. 


17 


of  the  papal  supremacy— Laud  and  the  daughter  of  the  duke 
of  Devonshire— Renewed  Puritan  emigration— Its  extent— The 
Nileometer  of  persecution— Laud's  design  on  Scotland— The 
bishop  and  the  king -The  Scottish  tour-The  coronation  at 
Edinburgh  — Laud  manages  the  ceremony— Charles  and  the 
Scots'  parUament— Return  of  the  king  to  London— Laud's 
success— Is  advanced  to  the  archiepiscopal  see  of  Canterbuiy— 
His  vast  patronage-The  kingdom  overhauled-Features  of  his 
tyranny— General  discontent— Puritanical  opinion  of  Laud— 
A  leaf  fron^  Hume— The  Titans  begin  to  heave  beneath  the 
mountain 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Progress  of  usurpation— John  Hampden  and  his  twenty  shillings 
tax— The  trial— Its  effect— Characteristics  of  the  tyranny  of 
Charles  I.— "Whom  the  gods  would  destroy  they  first  make 
mad"— The  swarm  of  pamphlets— Prynne,  Barton,  Bostwick— 
Their  arraignment— Trial,  in  Anglo-Saxon  dialect  — Laud's 
inquisition-Scenes  at  the  pillory-The  folly  of  persecution- 
Distinguishing  mark  of  a  Puritan— The  king's  declaration 
against  the  observation  of  the  Sabbath-A  contrast-Laud's 
presumption  — Emigration  once  more  — Herbert's  couplet- 
Alarm  of  the  court-The  king  vetoes  further  emigration— 
Hazlerig,  Vym,  Hampden,  and  CromweU  detained  m  England 
by  this  order— Comments— Peace  with  foreign  nations— Dis- 
graceful position  of  England— Charles  employs  the  leisure 
purchased  by  dishonor  in  attempting  to  coerce  Scotland  into 
conformity  with  the  English  ritual— Insidious  progress— The 
Scottish  service-book— Unanimity  of  the  Scots  in  opposing 
it— Reasons— The  king's  command— Ceremony  of  its  introduc- 
tion—The riot— The  old  woman  in  the  cathedral— Persistence 
of  the  king— Scotland  arms  from  the  Orkneys  to  the  Tweed- 
Resistance  organizes  itself-The  Covenant- Popular  enthusi- 
asm-Sympathy between  the  English  Puritans  and  the  Scotch 
Covenanters— Opinion  of  the  king's  adherents  adverse  to  these 
high,  rough  measures— Madness  of  the  court— Its  poverty- 
stricken  and  defenceless  condition— Charies  summons  his  no- 
bility to  a  rendezvous  at  York— The  situation— The  king  driven 
to  the  dernier  ressort  of  a  Parliament 280 

CHAPTER  XXn. 

Temper  of  the  new  Parliament— Anxiety  of  the  court— Laud's 
effort  to  neutralize  the  committees  -Caution  of  the  Commons- 
Skirmishing— Debate  on  grievances— Feeling  in  regard  to  the 
Scottish  war— The  king's  proposition— Yane's  comment— Dig- 


/ 


"> 


r^ 


'\ 


18  CONTENTS. 

solution  of  the  Parliament — Astonishment  of  the  country — 
Oliver  St  John  and  Clarendon — Indignation  of  the  middle 
classes — The  House  of  Commons  becomes  the  citadel  of  lib- 
erty— Unpopularity  of  the  prelates— Multitudes  of  "seditious 
books" — Charles  and  the  Komanists — Rapid  spread  of  popish 
doctrines — Walter  Montagu  and  Toby  Matthews — The  pope's 
estimate  of  the  status  of  the  English  bishops — Disquietude  of  the 
l*rotestants — Real  position  of  Laud — Bishop  Hall's  treatise  on 
ihejus  divinum  of  episcopacy — Laud  new-models  it — The  *'new 
counsels"  again — Comedy  of  the  Scotch  war — The  two  armies 
fraternize— Strafford's  despair— Aversion  to  the  war  in  Eng- 
land— Riots  in  London — Sack  of  Laud's  palace — The  et  ccetera 
oath — Charles  determines  to  convene  a  grand  council  of  the 
peers — Petitions  for  another  Parliament — The  king  succumbs — 
The  Long  Parliament — It  commences  soberly — Numb  fear  of  the 
court — The  chill  at  Whitehall — Decisive  action  of  the  Com- 
mons— Abolition  of  the  courts  of  exception — Puritan  prisons 
opened — Wentworth's  motto  of  *\thorough"  adopted — Strafford 
and  Laud  impeached  and  thro^vn  into  the  Tower — Strafford's 
speedy  trial  and  execution — Laud  left  for  several  years  in  close 
imprisonment — King  signs  an  act  which  binds  him  not  to 
dissolve  the  Parliament  without  their  consent — Paralysis  of 
the  court— Jubilee  of  the  non-conforming  sects 297 

CHAPTEK  XXin. 

Tlie  parliamentary  partisans  of  the  government  recover  from  their 
first  surprise  —  Object  of  the  Puritan  leaders  —  Salus  populi 
supreina  lex — Roundheads  and  Cavaliers — Boot-and-branch  peti- 
tion— Other  petitions  for  and  against  the  establishment — The 
Commons  are  divided  in  sentiment— Difference  between  the 
upper  and  lower  Houses — Character  of  the  Lords — Conserva- 
tism and  radicalism — The  Irish  insurrection — A  horrible  sus- 
picion— The  flood-tide  of  passion — The  English  saturnalia — 
Protestation  of  the  bishops  —  Consequent  impeachment  and 
sequestration — The  king's  treachery — Foul  play — Attempted 
arrest  of  the  Puritan  leaders  of  the  Commons — Consternation — 
Wild  uproar — Charles  quits  London  and  repairs  to  York — 
Ineffectual  negotiations  —  Commencement  of  the  civil  war — 
How  the  quarrel  looks  to  republican  eyes — Character  of  the 
two  sides  -The  Cavaliers — The  Puritans 310 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

The  early  months  of  1642— The  king's  preparations — Activity  of 
the  Parliament — The  Commons  feel  the  importance  of  effecting 
an  alliance  with  Scotland — Abolition  of  episcopacy — Remarks — 


7 


y 


X 


CONTENTS. 


19 


An  anecdote — Progress  of  the  war — Death  of  Lord  Brooke — 
Of  Falkland — Of  Hampden— The  Parliament  worsted — The 
commission  to  Scotland — The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant— 
The  English  commissioners  desire  a  civil  league — The  Scots 
insist  on  a  religious  covenant— The  compromise— The  Wesimin' 
ster  Assembly  of  divines— The  convocation  in  Henry  VEHth's 
chapel— Character  of  the  Assembly— The  three  parties— The 
Presbyterians— The  Erastians— The  Independents— The  Inde- 
pendents and  Baptists  the  only  avowed  friends  of  toleration  at 
that  time— Return  of  the  commissioners  from  Scotland— Dis- 
cussion in  the  Assembly  on  the  Covenant— lis  adoption — 
Letters  to  foreign  Protestants — Counter-appeal  of  the  king — 
Dissolution  of  the  establishment — Action  of  the  divines  at 
Westminster— Confession  of  Faith— Longer  and  Shorter  Cate- 
chisms—The debate  on  toleration— The  Presbyterians  usurp 
the  discarded  prerogatives  of  the  prelates — Three  kinds  of 
popes— Absurdity  of  the  Presbyterian  position— They  are  fierce 
to  press  conformity — Protest  of  the  Independent  leaders — 
Vane  —  Cromwell— Milton— ''iV^eio  presbyter  is  but  old  priest 
WRIT  large" — The  five  champions  of  toleration  in  the  Assem- 
bly  Their  "good  fight"  for  free  conscience— They  are  voted 

down— The  appeal  to  the  Commons— The  result— Chagrin  of 
the  party  of  intolerance 322 


J 


\ 


CHAPTEE  XXV. 

Live  growths  rive  dead  matter — Increasing  earnestness  of  the 
strvLggle—DUettanteism  gives  place  to  honest  energy— Crom- 
well—His  rapid  rise— His  philosophy  of  the  contest — Crom- 
well's regiment — He  new-models  the  arm 7 — Brilliant  results — 
Character  of  the  Parliamentary  troops— Their  sobriety— Their 
earnestness— Their  prayerfulness— Baxter's  account — A  glance 
at  Parliament— Constant  effort  of  the  rigid  Presbyterians  to  set- 
tle their  discipline  into  the  national  religion— Ecclesiastical  stat- 
utes—Repeal of  the  anti-sabbatarian  laws  of  the  past — Sunday 
under  the  Long  Parliament — Abolition  of  the  offices  and  titles 
of  bishops— Effect— Bishops  Usher,  Morton,  and  Hall— Parlia- 
ment votes  the  sequestrated  bishops  a  pension— Suffering  of 
the  clergy  on  both  sides  through  the  civil  war — The  deprived 
clergymen — A  fifth  part  of  the  revenue  of  their  old  livings 
awarded  them — Close  of  the  war — Charles  surrenders  his  per- 
son to  the  Scots — His  intrigues — The  king  and  the  Presby- 
terian preachers— An  odd  incident — The  Scots  give  the  king 
up  to  the  Parliament— The  Presbyterian  majority  in  the  Par- 
liament propose  to  nationalize  their  creed — Cromwell  forbids 


/ 


20  CONTENTS. 

* 

it— The  army  strongly  wedded  to  the  Independent  tenets— 
The  equal  toleration  of  all  evangelical  sects  demanded— The 
military  parliament— Cromwell  appointed  generalissimo — The 
army  subdues  the  Paiiiament 336 

CHAPTEK  XXVI. 

Perfidy  of  the  king— Cromwell  endeavors  to  negotiate  with  the 
monarch— The  discovery— The  flight— Charles  seeks  an  asy- 
lum and  finds  a  prison— Scotland  rises  for  the  king— March 
of  the  army— Treachery  of  the  Parhament— The  negotiators  at 
the  Isle  of  Wight — Triumphant  return  of  the  army— The  House 
"pwr(/ed"— The  king  seized— The  ''rump"  Parliament  votes 
the  impeachment  of  the  king  — The  trial  — The  execution- 
Grief  of  the  Cavaliers— The  "painted  sorrow"  of  the  Presby- 
terians—Mood of  the  Cromwellians  — The  government  new- 
modelled— The  council  of  state— Vane  becomes  the  leader  of 
the  House  — Milton  appointed  secretary  of  state— Discontent 
of  the  Romanists  and  the  Presbyterians— Ireland  and  Scotland 
transfer  their  allegiance  to  Charles  II.— Energy  of  the  Puritan 
government— Cromwell  subjugates  Ireland  — He  next  invades 
and  subdues  Scotland— The  pacification 347 

CHAPTEB  xxyn. 

Toleration  under  the  Commonwealth— Condition  and  status  of  the 
sectaries  —  Independents  —  Baptists— Quakers— George  Fox— 
Presbyterians— Their  intolerant  spirit— Act  for  the  propagation 
of  the  gospel  in  Wales— The  public  order— How  Sunday  was 
kept— Freedom  of  the  press— Milton  the  literary  champion  of 
the  Commonwealth— European  position  of  England— Domes- 
tic unpopularity  of  the  new  government— Reasons— Cromwell 
and  the  council  of  state— The  pretext— The  coup  dVto(— Feel- 
ing of  parties— "Barebones"'  Parliament— Cromwell's  "usur- 
pation"—Remarks— "This  house  to  be  let,  unfurnished"  356 

CHAPTER  XXVni. 

Cromwell  on  the  royal  platform  of  a  hundred  kings— Domestic 
affairs— State  of  parties— Friends  and  foes— The  Protector's 
wisdom— Unique  character  of  the  ecclesiastical  estabhshment— 
Broad  toleration— Ministerial  requisites  — The  triers— Crom- 
well's personal  liberaUty— His  conduct  towards  the  Episcopa- 
lians—Towards the  Papists— His  unparalleled  magnanimity— 
A  sneer— Attention  paid  to  literature— Oxford  revolutionized— 
"Drab-colored"  Puritanism  — The  strange  chancellor— Crom- 


CONTENTS. 


21 


¥' 


well's  Uterary  qualifications-His  taste  in  the  fine  arts— His  pat- 
ronage of  letters-Hume's  encomium— Baxter's  skctch-The 
Protector's  foreign  administration -Milton  Latin  secretary- 
Sir  Matthew  Hale  Chief-justice— Incorporation  of  Ireland  and 
Scotland-Cromwell's  European  fame-The  flunkey  crowned 
heads -CromweU's  attitude  towards  the  Romamst  poyers- 
His  intervention  for  the  Vaudois-Secret  of  his  unprecedented 
contmental  influence-The  English  fleet  in  the  Mediterranean- 
The  Protectorate  held  in  universal  awe-iVn  Itahan  diplomat  s 
impressions  of  England-Chaxacter  of  the  Pr^itans  under  the 
Protectorate-Death  and  character  of  bishop  HaU-I*arbamen 
proffers  the  crown  to  Cromwell-The  refusBl-Eclat  of  the  last 
years  of  the  Protectorate  -  Cromwell  and  the  Huguenots- 
Death  of  the  Protector-His  last  words  a  prayer ^^i 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Situation  on  the  death  of  Cromwell-A  toeacherous  calm--Richard 
Cromwell  proclaimed  Protector-His  character-Intngues- 
Resi^nation  of  the  new  Protector-Monk- Anarchy-Monk  in 
London-The  pleaders-Monk  recalls  the  -rump  '  Parha- 
ment-Its  vicissitudes-The  army-Feeling  of  the  masses-The 
election-The  coalition-Charles  11.  invited  to  take  the  crown- 
The  betrayal-Remarks-The  king  at  Dover-Arrives  in  Lon- 
don-Rf^oicings-Casting  the  horoscope ^^^^ 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

Reaction  against  the  Puritans-Causes-Looseness  and  profanity 
of  the  Restoration-Puritanism  out  of  date-Independents  ^d 
Baptists  petition  for  toleration-High  hopes  of  the  Presby- 
terians- Charles  coquets  with  them-The  royal  chaplams- 
Character  of  Charles  IL-The  Presbyterians  strive  to  secure  a 
comprehension-The  programme-The  audience-Baxter  and 
the  royal  profligato-The  consultation  at  Zion  coUege-D^ap- 
Bointmen^Feeling  of  the  CavaUers-Revival  of  the  Laudean 
severities  against  Non-conformists-The  old  sequestered  clergy 
Tt  court-The  Presbyterians  wait  upon  the  ^-^r'^^^f^^Z 
<ion-- Hope  deferred  maketh  the  heart  sick   -The  pohti- 
cU^s-Clarendon-Act  of  obUvion-Exceptions-The  waifs- 
The  sacrilege-Violation  of  the  grave-Milton's  pamphlets  and 
the  h^gman-Execution  of  Sir  Hany  Vane-The  papists 
^gglTLo  office-The  storm  which  exploded  in  a  laugh-Its 
^uli-Marriage  of  the  king-A  courtier's  plot-Dissolution  of 
t^e 'Convention"  parliament-The  new  ^'f<^^^^'^^'^'^^ 
the  Commons 


,/ 


'V 


22 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXXL 


Conference  at  the  Savoy— Its  unsatisfactory  conclusion— Presby- 
terians -kick  against  the  pricks"— The  convocation -The 
Commons  — Their  fierce  legislation— Act  of  Uniformity— The 
blow  falls-The  flood  of  luxury  and  high-Uving  in  the  church- 
Scotland  and  Ireland  dragooned  into  conformity— Black  St 
Bartholomew-The  oath -The  ejected  Puritans— Cruelty  of 
^e  govemment-The  martyr  spirit-A  countryman's  advice- 
The  sad  farewell-Spirit  of  the  Bartholomew  act-Fuller's  tes- 
timony-"The  Five  Groans  of  the  Church  "-The  Conventicle 
Act— Its  atrocity— The  catacomb  age  of  Puritanism  revived— 
Scenes  in  the  forest— The  upper  chamber  — Pepys'  diary— 
mat  justitia,  mat  codum-The  dispensing  power -Eomanists 
sheltered  beneath  the  wing  of  a  usurped  prerogative-^nimw* 
of  the  court-The  courtier  and  the  archbishop-Sheldon  and 
Dr.  Allen-A  page  from  Locke-Abhorrent  statutes-AU  par- 
ties disgraced  except  the  sufferers 4x6 

CHAPTER  XXXn. 

By-paths  of  the  story-Anecdotal  and  biographical  incidents  of  the 
^ectment-Baxter-The  outwitted  magistrate-John  Howe— 
His  cathohcity  and  one  of  its  results -Owen-His  character- 
John  Bunyan— Bunyan  before  Justice  Keelin-Bedford  gaol— 
The  prison  employment  of  the  -immortal  dreamer  "—Other 
worthies  of  the  exodus-Anecdotes  illustrative  of  providential  ■ 
interpositions  on  behalf  of  the  ejected-Case  of  Henry  Ers-  " 
kine-Case  of  Oliver  Heywood-Irrepressible  zeal  of  the  men 
ot  the  exodus— Illustrations— Characteristic  traits— The  armv 
of  "obscure  martyrs" 400 

CHAPTER  XXXm. 

England  a  Pantheon  of  impiety-Wild  ways  and  manners  of  the 
age-Midnight  revels  of  the  court- Licentiousness  of  litera- 
ture-CoUiers  tilt  against  English  comedy-Popular  demoral- 
ization-God  sends  a  scourge-The  plague-Its  insidious  pro- 
^es^London  deserted -Death's  trophies -Faithfulness  of 
Uie  Non-conformist  clergy-The  people  flock  to  preaching- 
The  death  chant-The  victims-Amazing  conduct  of  the  court 
and  bishops-This  calamity  does  not  stun  them  into  sobriety- 
•tZ.^  ^^^  ^"^  ^^^^  *^®  Dissenters  into  exile  or  confonn- 
^  \.~"  Tlf,  ^®^°^^  scourge- Great  fire  of  16G6— London  in 
ashes— The  respite ^^ 


h 


) 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


23 


Disgrace  of  Clarendon — The  king  off'ended  with  the  bishops — The 
Puritans  begin  to  placate  popular  resentment — Threatening 
aspect  of  foreign  affairs  —  Complacent  infamy  of  Charles — 
Coalition  between  the  moderate  Churchmen  and  the  moderate 
Cavaliers  to  curb  intolerance — Change  in  Parliament — The 
new  plan  of  comprehension — Rally  of  the  party  of  the  past — 
Victory  of  the  vltramontanists — Fearful  spread  of  popery — Mad- 
ness of  the  bishops — Conventicle  act  reenacted  and  stiffened — 
Swarm  of  informers — Heroism  of  the  Dissenters — The  Triple 
Alliance — The  Cabal — The  king — The  new  councillors — The 
programme  of  Louis  XTV. — ^England  the  vassal  of  France — The 
mandate  obeyed — Second  marriage  of  the  duke  of  York — A 
cunning  scheme — The  Puritans  and  the  dispensing  power — In- 
solence and  authority  of  the  Romanists — Charles  and  the  Par- 
liament— "In  the  dark  valley" — The  Test  Act — The  Bye-House 
Plot — An  anecdote — The  Meal-tub  Plot — Alliance  between  the 
moderate  Churchmen  and  the  Non-conformists  grows  closer — 
Whigs  and  Tories — The  first  trophy — The  Exclusion  BUI — Dis- 
solution of  Parliament — Renewed  persecution  of  the  Puritans — 
The  double  motive — King  and  priest — Death  of  Charles  H.  460 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 

Moloch  succeeds  Belial — Character  of  James  11. — The,  solemn 
lie — England  cozened — The  awkward  dissembler — The  new 
king's  raid  for  Romanism — ^An  incident — James  and  the  Com- 
mons— The  address — Persecution  of  the  Puritans — Immunity 
of  the  papists — The  insurrection  of  Monmouth — It  is  made  the 
pretext  for  increased  anti-protestant  severity — Jeffiies — The 
legal  campaign — James  renews  his  schemes  for  the  overthrow 
of  English  Protestantism  and  the  nationalization  of  the  papal 
creed — A  record  of  tyranny — Alarm  of  the  Established  church — 
Its  counter  effort — The  king  forbids  all  opposition  to  Roman- 
ism— Seeks  an  alliance  with  the  Dissenters — Feelings  of  the 
Puritans — Their  retrospect — Their  patriotism — The  court  wages 
a  fierce  war  against  the  Established  church— Imprisonment  and 
trial  of  the  bishops — Popular  enthusiasm — James  fixes  a  gulf 
between  him  and  the  English  church — His  folly — England  loses 
all  continental  influen'ce — The  king  and  the  army — Romanism 
struts  in  the  royal  purple — ^The  hope — The  hope  quenched — 
The  supposititious  heir — The  dernier  ressort — The  coalition — 
Secret  negotiations  with  William  of  Orange — Activity  of  the 
bishops  against  the  king — Lloyd  and  the  Puritans— The  prom- 


24 


u 


t 


CONTENTS. 


ise— Animus  of  the  Dissenters—The  Whigs  join  the  coalition— 
The  Tories  desert  the  court— William  and  Mary  invited  to  inter- 
vene for  the  salvation  of  Protestantism— William  of  Orange— 
His  high  character  and  European  importance— He  concludes 
to  intervene— Lands  in  England— Flight  of  James— The  glori- 
ous revolution  of  1688— Congratulations— William's  interview 
with  the  Dissenting  clergy— His  speech— The  edict  of  tolera- 
tion— Laus  i>eo— Character  and  mission  of  the  English  Puri- 
tans   . ^rjl 


,#  ■""»'" 


r 


r 


f 


b 


i 


^. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


CHAPTEE  I. 


A  RETEOSPECT. 


We  have  reached  the  epoch  of  Christian  democ- 
racy. In  the  nineteenth  century  ideas  rule ;  empty 
titles  do  not  domineer.  Christendom  is  under  a 
government  of  opinion  and  morning  newspapers. 
Popes  and  kings  no  longer  mark  the  ages.  Luther 
and  Calvin,  Faust  and  Fulton,  Howard  and  Ben- 
tham  shape  the  ethics  and  mould  the  material  in- 
terests of  society.  Churches  and  open  Bibles  rep- 
resent the  controlling  influences  of  modern  times. 
Thrones  and  the  Yatican  are  "  twin  relics  of  bar-* 
barism ;"  they  serve  as  milestones,  and  show  how 
far  civilization  has  travelled. 

This  record  is  especially  true  of  the  Saxon  race. 
The  remote  East  still  gropes,  like  a  blind  Samson, 
for  the  pillars  of  its  prison-house.  The  Komanic 
races  only  slowly  emerge  from  the  dungeons  of  the 
Inquisition.  But  enough  has  been  gained  to  show 
that  Christianity  now  strikes  the  diapason  of  hu- 


PmUana 


<^' 


i^-^-v   >    . 


24 


u. 


CONTENTS. 


iae— Animus  of  the  Dissenters-— The  Whigs  join  the  coalition— 
The  Tories  desert  the  court— William  and  Mary  invited  to  inter- 
vene for  the  salvation  of  Protestantism— William  of  Orange— 
His  high  character  and  European  importance— He  concludes 
to  intervene — ^Lands  in  England— Flight  of  James — The  glori- 
ous revolution  of  1688~Congratulations— William's  interview 
with  the  Dissenting  clergy— His  speech— The  edict  of  tolera- 
tion— Zaus  Deo — Character  and  mission  of  the  English  Puri- 
tans   ^rjl 


) 


,1 


) 


I 


i 


i 


f 


1 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PUEITAI^S. 


CHAPTEE  I, 


A  RETEOSPECT. 


We  have  reached  the  epoch  of  Christian  democ- 
racy. In  the  nineteenth  century  ideas  rule ;  empty 
titles  do  not  domineer.  Christendom  is  under  a 
government  of  opinion  and  morning  newspapers. 
Popes  and  kings  no  longer  mark  the  ages.  Luther 
and  Calvin,  Faust  and  Fulton,  Howard  and  Ben- 
tham  shape  the  ethics  and  mould  the  material  in- 
terests of  society.  Churches  and  open  Bibles  rep- 
resent the  controlling  influences  of  modern  times. 
Thrones  and  the  Vatican  are  "  twin  relics  of  bar-* 
barism  ;'*  they  serve  as  milestones,  and  show  how 
far  civilization  has  travelled. 

This  record  is  especially  true  of  the  Saxon  race. 
The  remote  East  still  gropes,  like  a  blind  Samson, 
for  the  pillars  of  its  prison-house.  The  Eomanic 
races  only  slowly  emerge  from  the  dungeons  of  the 
Inquisition.  But  enough  has  been  gained  to  show 
that  Christianity  now  strikes  the  diapason  of  hu- 


*»nillan« 


♦  v 


u 


26 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


A  RETROSPECT. 


27 


man  affairs.  The  Papacy  may  never  more  fetter 
lips  and  taboo  progress.  The  wave  of  tyrannical 
rule  shall  never  sweep  so  far  westward  as  to  fill 
once  more  with  miniature  tyrants  the  robber-cas- 
tles of  the  Ehine.  Upon  the  future  God  sets  the 
seal  of  his  apostleship.  The  race  to  this  goal  has 
been  run  for,  "not  without  heat  and  toil."  Thought, 
the  earthquake  of  conscience,  has  shaped  a  unique 
era.  The  Titans  heaving  beneath  the  mountains 
have  thrown  up  the  soil  of  a  new  ricjime.  The  dis- 
tinctive trait  of  this  age  is  a  puissant  and  evange- 
lized individuality.  At  length  Christianity  teaches 
the  inestimable  value  of  every  human  soul.  The 
toil  of  eighteen  hundred  years  cries,  "  Eureka !  I 
have  found  the  diamond  of  an  immortal  soul  and 
an  equal  manhood." 

This  grand  truth  was  born  of  the  Keformation, 
and  it  is  the  outgi'owth  of  the  New  Testament.  Its 
sturdy  gi'owth  in  England  and  in  America  is  due  to 
the  persistent  nurture  of  the  Puritans,  those  lineal 
descendants  of  the  reformers  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. For  "  Puritanism  was  the  natural,  inevitable 
fruit  of  the  Keformation.  Henry  VIII.  was  the 
remote  author  of  the  Bartholomew  act.  Baxter 
was  the  true  representative  of  Cranmer ;  and  the 
ejected  clergy  of  the  reign  of  Charles  11.  were  the 
spiritual  successors  of  the  martyrs  of  Smithfield 
under  the  rule  of  Mary."* 

Lord  Bacon,  as  he  takes  his  march  down  the 
centuries,  may  lay  one  hand  upon  the  telegraph, 

«  Stowell,  Hist,  of  the  Puritans  in  England,  Prefiice,  p.  12. 


and  place  the  other  upon  the  steam-engine,  and 
say,  "  These  are  mine,  for  I  taught  you  to  invent." 
So  the  Puritans,  peering  through  the  misty  centu- 
ries to  catch  a  view  of  the  garnered  fruit  of  their  pain 
and  sacrifice,  the  overflowing  lap,  the  cunning  fin- 
gers, happy  labor  vocal  on  every  hill-side,  commerce 
whitening  every  sea,  societies  for  the  amelioration 
of  mankind  taking  up  the  four  corners  of  the  globe, 
the  press  largely  evangelized,  a  Christian  literature, 
whole  continents  dotted  with  school -houses  and 
churches,  may  echo  of  these  elements  of  modern 
civilization,  "  You  too  are  ours,  for  we  taught  you 
to  believe  in  God." 

It  is  quite  the  fashion  now  in  certain  circles  to 
vilify  Puritanism;  pigmies  run  up  and  down  its 
sides  striving  to  measure  it  with  their  yard-sticks. 
Dizzy  savants  mock  and  sneer.  Infidel  letters  snarl 
and  sputter.  The  votaries  of  an  emasculated  Chris- 
tianity, who  "  run  after  strange  gods„"  growl  and 
snap.  Men  of  latitudinarian  principles  and  selfish 
greed,  "lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort,"  debauchees, 
the  scum  of  corner  groggeries,  exhaust  their  vile 
rhetoric  and  shout  themselves  hoarse  in  denounc- 
ing the  Puritans. 

But  they  are  not  original  in  their  abuse.  Laud 
abused  them  as  cordially  more  than  two  hun- 
dred years  ago.  The  names  of  the  Puritans  were 
linked  with  epithets  of  hatred,  generations  before 
the  birth  of  these  "latter-day  saints"  of  material- 
ism. The  Puritans  withstood  the  onset  of  the  pro- 
fane wits  of  the  Kestoration.    Dryden  and  the  rest 


I 


28 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


A  RETROSPECT. 


29 


could  not  lampoon  and  laugh  them  out  of  existence. 
Tipsy  cavaliers,  pausing  after  each  fresh  glass  to 
hiccough  curses  upon  them,  could  not  blast  their 
fair  fame.  Is  their  posthumous  reputation  to  be 
tarnished  by  the  empty  wind  of  modern  scoffers  ? 

Undoubtedly  many  good  men  on  either  conti- 
nent earnestly  dissent  both  from  the  distinctive 
religious  tenets  and  from  the  political  philosophy 
of  Puritanism.  But  these  do  not  stoop  to  retail  the 
exploded  gossip  of  coffee-houses  and  the  effete  slan- 
der of  bagnios.  The  more  candid  of  them  readily 
recognize  that  there  is  in  the  annals  of  the  Puritans 
much  of  truth  to  enlighten  the  mind,  much  of  ro- 
mantic beauty  to  kindle  the  imagination,  much  of 
Christian  heroism  to  thrill  and  renovate  the  heart. 

At  all  events,  the  Puritans  were  the  creators  of 
moral  America ;  and  it  is  not  fit  that  they  should 
be  suffered  to  go  down  the  ages  clothed  in  the  dis- 
torted history  of  heated  foemen.  Who  shall  object, 
if  fair  historic  statements  assist  them  to  emerge 
from  the  vulgar  pillory  of  misconception  in  which 
the  malice  of  a  beaten  monarchy  and  the  spite  of  a 
Komanized  priesthood  have  held  them  with  patient 
vindictiveness  through  two  hundred  years  ? 

It  has  been  well  said,  that  in  the  pursuit  of  truth 
blind  partisanship  should  be  excluded,  and  that  in 
this  case  it  is  quite  possible  to  conclude,  on  the  ev- 
idence of  facts,  whether  the  Puritans  were  essen- 
tially right  or  wrong.  Whatever  decision  may  be 
reached,  it  is  momentously  important  to  f amiharize 
ourselves  somewhat  minutely  with  the  vivid  and 


checkered  story  of  those  "  sane  giants  and  giants 
gone  mad,"  who  have  played  so  central  a  part  in 
the  history  of  twice  a  dozen  decades, 

"The  dead  but  sceptred  sovereigns  who  still  rule 
Our  spirits  from  their  urns." 

"In  order  that  this  study  may  be  useful,  it 
should  have  a  character  of  universality.  To  con- 
fine the  history  of  a  people  within  the  space  of  a 
few  years,  or  even  of  a  century,  would  deprive  it 
both  of  truth  and  life.  We  might  indeed  have  tra- 
ditions, chronicles,  and  legends,  but  there  would  be 
no  history.  History  is  a  wonderful  organism,  no 
part  of  which  can  be  retrenched.  To  understand 
the  present,  we  must  know  the  past.  Society,  like 
man  himself,  has  its  infancy,  youth,  maturity,  and 
old  age.  Ancient  pagan  society  spent  its  infancy 
in  the  East,  in  the  midst  of  the  anti-Hellenic  races, 
had  its  youth  in  the  animated  epoch  of  the  Greeks, 
its  manhood  in  the  stern  period  of  Koman  great- 
ness, and  sheltered  its  old  age  under  the  decline  of 
the  Empire.  Modern  society  has  passed  through 
analogous  stages ;  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation 
it  attained  its  legal  majority."* 

These  slow  and  distant  preparations  form  one 
of  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  history.  Cuvier 
said,  borrowing  the  idea  from  St.  Hilaire,  that  the 
whole  bony  structure  of  every  animal  grew  from  the 
idea  of  a  single  bone.  Grant  him  that,  and  he  could 
complete  the  whole  bony  structure.  That  is  what 
preparatory  eras  are  in  history;  they  may  seem 

•  D'Aubign^,  Eeformation  in  England,  p.  18. 


\. 


i 
1 


30 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


insignificant,  but  they  are  the  primal  bone ;  they 
are  at  once  the  prophecy  and  the  guaranty  of  the 
completed  future. 

The  birth  of  Christianity  in  England  is  shrouded 
in  tradition.*  In  the  absence  of  authoritative  data, 
it  is  only  possible  to  guess  more  or  less  shrewdly  at 
the  hidden  fact.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  "  in 
the  second  Christian  century,  vessels  frequently 
sailed  to  the  savage  shores  of  Britain  from  the 
ports  of  Asia  Minor,  Alexandria,  and  the  Greek 
colonies  in  Gaul,"  and  that  "  among  the  merchants 
busied  in  calculating  the  profits  they  could  make 
upon  the  merchandise  with  which  their  ships  were 
freighted,  there  would  occasionally  be  found  a  few 
pious  men  from  the  banks  of  the  Meander  or  the 
Thermes,  conversing  peacefully  about  the  birth, 
life,  death,  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
and  rejoicing  at  the  prospect  of  saving  by  these 
glad  tidings  the  pagans  towards  whom  they  were 

steering."t 

Through  some  such  apostleship  as  this,  nominal 
Christianity  was  introduced  into  Britain.:):  The 
island  had  been  known  to  the  Phoenicians,  those 
earliest  navigators,  several  centuries  before  the 
Eoman  conquest  ;§  nor  was  it  terra  incognita  to  the 
Carthaginian  and  the  Grecian  merchants.il  The 
most  ancient  inhabitants  of  Britain  are  believed  to 

o  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Ftill,  vol.  1,  chap.  1.    Lingard,  Hist. 
Eng.,  vol.  1,  cli.  1.     Hume,  vol.  1,  ch.  1. 

t  D'Aubigne,  Eeformation  in  England,  p.  19. 

X  Bede,  Eccl.  Hist.,  lib.  1,  cap.  23. 

§  Hist  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  vol.  1,  book  1.  ]|  Ibid. 


A  BETROSPECT. 


31 


have  sprung  from  the  Cimmerian  and  the  Celtic 
stocks,  and  to  have  wandered  thither  through 
Gaul.^ 

Of  the  singularly  wretched  condition  of  primeval 
Britain,  historians  give  striking  instances.  Nor  did 
the  introduction  of  the  Eoman  civility  suffice  in  any 
marked  degree  to  elevate  the  Britons.  The  hea- 
thenism of  the  Druids  was  simply  supplanted  by 
the  more  polished  paganism  of  the  classic  mythol- 
ogy, that  one-eyed  leader  of  the  blind.  Then  at  an 
indefinite  period  an  anomalous  Christianity  swayed 
a  feeble  and  irregular  sceptre ;  but  with  the  wane 
of  the  Bom  an  rule,  the  restless  energy  of  Druidism 
began  to  encroach  upon  the  ill-defined  domain  of 
the  new  ethics,  and  where  Christianity  was  not  ab- 
solutely swallowed  up,  it  was  fatally  distorted  by 
the  hideous  aboriginal  superstitions.  Of  the  vicis- 
situdes of  this  struggle  no  authentic  history  remains 
to  us.  The  most  careful  antiquarian,  as  he  bends 
over  the  relics  of  this  fabulous  past,  can  decipher 
naught  but  the  idle  records  of  a  legendary  and  por- 
tentous hagiology.f 

A  little  later  came  the  Saxon  invasion.  The 
resistless  barbarians  streamed  from  their  German 
forests,  bringing  with  them  the  Tartaric  idolatry  of 
the  North.  The  grim  superstition  of  the  Druids, 
the  obsolete  paganism  of  Bome,  the  venerable 
forms  of  Christianity,  all  were  absorbed,  or  at  least 
beaten  back,  and  joining  hands  with  the  genius  of 

•  Bede,  lib.  1.     Punchard,  Hist,  of  Congregationalism. 
t  Webb,  Life  of  Wickliffe,  p.  G3. 


f 


32 


HISTOKT  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


British  independence,  they  retired  to  impenetrable 
retreats  and  mountain  solitudes.  The  island  was 
abandoned  to  the  spirit  of  Odin,  and  for  upwards  of 
a  century  the  gospel  was  lost  to  the  kingdoms  of  the 
heptarchy.* 

The  reintroduction  of  Christianity  was  effected 
by  Gregory,  surnamed  the  Great.  Before  his  assump- 
tion of  the  tiara,  he  chanced  one  day  to  stand  in  the 
market-place  of  Kome.  While  idHng  there  he  ob- 
served several  youthful  Saxons  chained  in  the  slave- 
gangs.  Struck  by  their  beauty  and  intelligence,  he- 
demanded  of  them  their  name.  ''Angles,''  was  the 
reply.  ''Angels,''  exclaimed  Gregory,  "you  truly 
are,  and  you  ought  to  be  joined  to  the  celestial 
company."  On  being  told  that  they  came  £i-om  the 
province  of  Deira,  he  cried,  "  Aye,  de  ira  indeed ; 
from  the  wrath  of  God  they  must  be  plucked.'* 
When  he  learned  that  ^Ua  was  the  name  of  their 
king,  he  instantly  replied,  "  Alleluiah !  AUeluiahs 
must  be  chanted  by  them  in  the  dominions  of  their 
sovereign."t 

The  design  which  was  born  of  this  solemn  tri- 
fling never  dropped  from  the  prelate's  mind ;  and 
when  in  after  years  he  was  advanced  to  the  pon- 
tifical throne,  he  dispatched  an  ecclesiastical  com- 
mission of  forty  monks,  headed  by  a  Eoman  priest 
named  Augustine,  to  the  shores  of  Britain.^ 

«  Hume,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  vol.  1,  ch.  1,  passim.     Bede,  Ub.  1, 
cap.  23. 

t  Bede,  lib.  1,  cap.  23.     Grey,  Epist.,  Ub.  10,  epist  Sfi. 
X  Bede,  lib.  1,  cap.  23.     Spelman,  Com.,  p.  82. 


,» 


A  RETEOSPECT. 


33 


A  point  d'appui  already  existed.  Bertha,  a 
Prankish  princess  who  had  married  Ethelbert  king 
of  Kent,  was  devoted  to  the  Christian  faith.  Au- 
gustine took  advantage  of  this,  and  it  was  not  long 
ere  the  cenobite  dispatched  to  Eome  glowing  ac- 
counts of  his  multitudinous  spiritual  conquests; 
while  the  pontifical  court  exulted  as  much  over 
these  peaceful  trophies  as  their  ancestors  had  been 
wont  to  do  over  their  most  sanguinary  triumphs 
and  splendid  victories.* 

But  it  must  not  be  thought  that  the  Christianity 
with  which  the  eldest  kingdom  of  the  heptarchy  was 
so  quickly  inoculated,  sprang  pure  and  unsulHed 
from  the  primitive  fountain.  The  transition  from 
apostolic  simplicity  to  papal  corruption  had  already 
commenced. 

The  first  danger  which  beset  the  gospel  was 
fi'om  the.  spirit  of  paganism.  Both  the  schools  of 
philosophy  and  the  haunts  of  vulgar  superstition 
were  pervaded  by  elements  at  mortal  variance  with 
the  simple  essence  of  Christianity.  From  the  wis* 
dom  of  the  heathen  world,  the  new  rehgion  had 
accordingly  to  encounter  either  the  peril  of  fierce 
opposition,  or  the  still  more  dangerous  and  insid- 
ious offer  of  coalition.  If  the  earth-born  philoso- 
phy of  the  age  were  unequal  to  a  conflict  with  the 
truth  of  God,  it  might  at  least  scheme  to  hold  a 
divided  empire;  and  with  this  view  it  stretched 
forth  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  The  result  was 
that  the  faith  of  Christ  was  gradually  transformed 

*  Hume,  vol.  1,  p.  27. 

2* 


I 


34 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


into  the  likeness  of  a  human  science,  wherein  the 
intellect  of  man  might  freely  and  boldly  take  its 
pastime. 

Still  more  infectious  were  the  gay  ritual  and  the 
imaginative  mythology  of  paganism.  Had  an  apos- 
tle revisited  the  earth  at  the  end  of  a  dozen  decades 
from  the  period  of  his  ministry,  and  looked  at  noth- 
ing but  the  outward  church,  he  might  have  been 
tempted  to  fear  that  the  truth  for  which  he  had 
pleaded,  perhaps  died,  had  been  transformed  into  a 
gorgeous  spectacle,  a  mystic  pageantry,  its  painful 
and  laborious  evangelists  into  pompous  actors,  its 
places  of  worship  into  splendid  theatres. 

In  primitive  times  the  chaHces  were  of  wood 
and  the  ministers  of  gold;  now  the  church  was 
content  with  golden  chaHces  and  wooden  priests. 

Spirituahty  died  out  of  rehgion  with  a  shriek. 
The  subtle  essence  of  Christianity  was  /rozen  in 
formalism.*  Eeligion  became  an  incarnate  Phari- 
see, The  restless  wit  of  man  invented  exorcisms 
for  demons,  absolutions  for  sin,  and  the  thousand 
absurdities  of  the  ceremonial  law,  and  then,  paus- 
ing with  self-satisfied  blasphemy,  rebaptized  the 
impious  progeny  of  his  own  distempered  brain  with 
the  sacred  name  of  Christianity. 

From  these  abuses  grew  the  edifice  of  the  papa- 
cy, whose  comer-stone  was  blasphemy;  whose  pil- 
lars were  spiritual  death,  and  whose  crowning  arch 
was  arrogant  woridliness.  "  From  the  midst  of  this 
temple  a  portentous  spectre  was  seen  to  arise,  an 

*  See  Milton's  essay  "On  the  Reformation  of  England." 


A  RETROSPECT. 


35 


apparition  habited  in  the  robes  of  priesthood,  and 
surrounded  by  all  the  attributes  of  majesty,  holding 
in  one  hand  the  rod  of  worldly  power,  and  in  the 
other  a  flaming  sword  which  tui^ned  in  every  direc- 
tion to  guard  the  citadel  of  spiritual  dominion.  For 
ages  did  this  stupendous  phantom  continue  to 
spread  out  before  the  astonished  and  awe-struck 
nations,  until  its  feet  seemed  to  rest  upon  the 
earth,  while  its  head  towered  among  the  stars."* 

Such  a  Christianity,  propagated  among  pagans, 
could  be  little  else  than  a  change  of  superstitions. 
Eemembering  these  things,  it  is  not  difficult  to  ac-  ' 
cede  to  the  statement  of  a  recent  historian,  that 
while  "  it  would  be  too  much  to  assert  that  there 
was  no  intelligent  piety  in  Britain  in  these  ages,  it 
is  still  perfectly  apparent,  from  the  history  of  the 
times,  that  Christianity  had  Kttle  else  than  a  name 
to  live,  while  it  was  dead.  Flowing  to  the  Saxons 
from  the  corrupted  fountain-head  of  papal  usurpa- 
tion, it  must  have  been  the  waters  of  death,  rather 
than  of  life,  to  the  ignorant  islandei's. 

"The  church  history  of  the  heptarchy  is  a 
loathsome  story  of  papal  imposition  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  ignorant  and  superstitious  devotion 
on  the  other.  Many  of  the  putrescent  abomina- 
tions of  Rome  were  incorporated  into  the  Saxon 
church.  Reverence  for  their  sovereign  lord  the 
pope  was  the  first  article  of  the  Saxon  creed.  A 
devout  regard  for  all  that  wore  the  sacerdotal  habit 
stood  next  in  order.  The  worship  of  relics  and 
*  Webb,  Life  of  Wickliffe,  p.  39. 


S6 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


A  RETBOSPECT 


37 


saints  was  held  to  be  scarcely  less  important  than 
the  worship  of  God  himself.  The  payment  of  *  Pe- 
ter's pence'  would  purchase  pardon  for  a  thou- 
sand sins.  A  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  the  establish- 
ment of  a  monastery,  a  gift  of  property  to  the 
church,  would  cover  the  most  flagitious  crimes."* 
Christ  was  lost  sight  of.  He  was  replaced  by  the 
Virgin.  In  Milton's  phrase,  "nearly  all  the  in- 
ward parts  of  worship,  which  issue  from  the  native 
strength  of  the  soul,  ran  lavishly  to  the  upper  skin, 
and  there  hardened  into  a  crust  of  formality."t 

Upon  the  canvas  of  this  picture  is  painted  the 
story  of  British  Christianity  through  a  thousand 
years.  The  essential  situation  was  unchanged  by  the 
fierce  onslaughts  of  the  Danish  freebooters.  Even 
in  the  enlightened  reign  of  Alfi-ed  the  arrogance  of 
ecclesiasticism  was  as  unbridled  as  in  the  darkest 
ages  of  the  heptarchy.  That  energetic  and  accom- 
plished prince  either  dreaded  to  provoke  a  conflict 
with  the  seeming  omnipotence  of  the  papacy  by 
attempting  to  stem  the  torrent  of  abuses,  or  he  had 
no  disposition,  absorbed  in  political  reform,  to 
trench  upon  what  was  universally  esteemed  to  be 
the  domain  of  Eome. 

The  great  gain  under  Alfred's  reign  was  the 
impulse  which  was  given  to  learning.  Since  the 
Saxon  invasion,  the  Greeks  and  Latins,  and  even 
the  converted  Goths,  had  looked  upon  the  island 
with  unutterable  dread.    "The  soil,"  said  they,  "is 

•  Punchard,  Hist,  of  Congregationalism,  vol.  1,  pp.  208,  209. 
t  Milton,  On  Reformation  in  England. 


I    .1 


covered  with  serpents ;  the  air  is  thick  with  deadly 
exhalations;  the  souls  of  the  departed  are  trans- 
ported thither  at  midnight  from  the  shores  of  Gaul. 
Ferrymen,  the  sons  of  Erebus  and  Night,  admit 
these  phantoms  into  their  boats,  and  listen  with  a 
shudder  to  their  mysterious  whisperings."  Britain, 
whence  light  was  one  day  to  be  shed  over  the  hab- 
itable globe,  was  long  esteemed  the  trysting-place 
of  the  dead. 

In  Alfred's  age  this  superstitious  notion  was 
only  slowly  dying  away.    Ke  found  "  the  monaster- 
ies burned,  the  monks  butchered  or  dispersed,  the 
libraries  destroyed."*    He  himself  complained  that 
"  not  a  priest  south  of  the  Thames  could  translate 
Latin  or  Greek  into  his  mother-tongue."t    Britain 
floundered  in  the  Serbonian  bay  of  ignorant  bar- 
barism;   he   assisted  his  country  to  emerge   and 
stand  upon  high  land.     Schools  were  everywhere 
established.     The  venerable  university  of  Oxford 
was  founded,  endowed  with  many  privileges,  and 
supported  by  appropriate  revenues  ;:f  while  cele- 
brated continental  scholars  were  invited  to  make 
his  court  their  home,  and  such  as  came  were  mag- 
nificently recompensed.§ 

Thus  the  future  was  secured  to  liberty.  Schools 
insured  churches.  Learning  was  the  avant-courrier 
of  reform. 


*  Hume,  vol.  1,  p.  74.  f  Ibid. 

§  Spelman,  Life  of  Alfred,  ed.  1709,  j).  120. 


X  Ibid. 


38 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


CHAPTEE    II. 

AN  OASIS  IN  THE  DESERT. 

Attee  the  death  of  Alfred,  in  the  first  year  of  the 
tenth  century,*  the  heterogeneous  elements  which 
his  plastic  hand  had  moulded  into  seeming  unity 
crumbled  to  pieces.  Political  and  ecclesiastical 
affairs  were  all  in  confusion. 

The  chief  agent  of  this  ruin  was  St.  Dunstan. 
The  history  of  superstition  can  scarcely  present  an- 
other name  so  infamous  for  brazen  abuse  of  vulgar 
credulity  and  a  prodigal  appHcation  of  the  grossest 
machinery  of  imposture.  His  whole  progress  from 
an  anchorite  cell  at  Glastonbury  to  the  primacy  of 
England  is  one  perpetual  atrocity  and  fraud.  His 
grand  object  was  to  erect  the  Benedictme  order  on 
the  ruins  of  the  national  church,  and  to  consign  to 
monks  the  entire  government  of  the  state.t 

His  commanding  genius  was  well  suited  to  this 
pernicious  enterprise,  and  the  success  of  his  machi- 
nations was  astounding.  His  career  forms  a  mon- 
ument of  unscrupulous  ambition  such  as  might  have 
appeared  extravagant  and  monstrous  even  in  the 
pages  of  romance.  That  his  portrait  has  not  been 
overcolored  however,  we  may  know  from  this,  that 
his  biography  has  been  written,  not  by  calumnious 
adversaries,  but  by  admiring  and   contemporary 

*  Spelman.    Hume.     Chron.  Sax.,  p.  99. 
t  Osborne  in  Anglia  Sacra.    Webb,  p.  72. 


AN  OASIS  IN  THE  DESERT.  3d 

chroniclers,  while  the  gratitude  of  Kome  has  pre- 
served his  name  to  this  day  on  her  rubric  of  canon- 
ization. 

The  struggle  thus  inaugurated  marked  one  age 
and  moulded  the  succeeding.    The  blazing  embers 
of  the  quarrel  were  only  nuenched  by  the  Norman 
conquest.     When  William  the  Conqueror  passed 
the  channel  into  England,  he  commenced  a  new 
regime.     The  unlawful  raid  of  the  Norman  robber 
had  been  sanctified  by  the  special  benediction  of 
pope  Alexander  II.*    StiU,  when  he  learned  that 
Hildebrand  assumed  to  lasso  both  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral Europe  to  his  feet,  the  Conqueror's  haughty 
spirit  refused  to  succumb.    He  refused  to  do  fealty 
for  his  kingdom  to  the  see  of  Eome ;  and  for  once 
the  crafty  pontiif  was  foiled  by  a  temper  as  reso- 
lute and  arbitrary  as  his  own. 

However,  it  was  in  this  reign  that  Lanfranc,  an 
Italian  who  had  been  promoted  by  the  Conqueror 
to  the  primacy  of  England,  urged  the  infliction  of 
cehbacy  upon  the  clergy.    He  also  introduced  into 
the  Saxon  church  the  doctrine  of  the  corporeal  pres- 
ence in  the  sacramenit     But  Lanfranc'sJ  mind, 
lofty  as  it  was,  was  not  powerful  enough  to  «  rebuke 
the  genius"  of  his  master,  and  it  stiU  remains  tnie  * 
that  the  main  drift  of  William's  reign  ran  counter 
to  the  supremacy  of  "  the  pope's  proud  prelacy." 

•  Hume,  Webb,  Pnnehard,  D'Aubign^  etc. 
t  Webb,  Life  of  WicHiffe,  p.  73. 

t  Lanfranc  succeeded  Stigand,  who  was  the  last  of  the  Saxon 
prelates. 


I 


40 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


AN  OASIS  IN  THE  DESJIRT. 


41 


Tlie  gigantic  scheme  of  Hildebrand  for  the  erec- 
tion of  St.  Peter's  chair  into  the  throne  of  Chris- 
tendom, and  thus  effecting  the  restoration  of  Eome 
to  her  old  position  of  mistress  of  the  world,  is  re- 
corded in  the  blots  which  deform  the  history  of  me- 
diaeval Europe. 

The  march  of  usurpation  was  for  a  time  diverted 
from  England  by  the  inflexible  sternness  and  rigor 
of  the  Conqueror,  by  the  reckless  obstinacy  of  Ku- 
fus,*  and  by  the  intelligent  firmness  of  Henry  Beau- 
clerc. 

But  Kome  could  afford  to  bide  her  time,  sure 
that  a  crop  of  more  pliable  kings  would  eventually 
spring  up.  She  knew  that  the  Beauclercs  did  not 
come  in  large  bodies,  nor  march  in  battalions  :  they 
stray  through  the  centuries,  now  and  then  one ;  and 
he  is  the  salt  of  a  generation. 

In  the  mean  time  letters  continued  to  advance. 
The  learning  of  that  epoch  was  not  altogether 
healthy ;  and  Burke  laments  that  "  the  infancy  of 
British  learning  was  suckled  by  the  dotage  of  the 
Eoman."  Still,  a  monkish  literature  was  better 
than  none ;  and  gradually  expanding  beyond  the 
sullen  walls  of  the  monasteries,  it  somewhat  smooth- 
ed the  shaggy  barbarism  of  the  age. 

Through  all  these  years  the  papacy,  not  satis- 
fied with  maintaining  old  privileges,  constantly 
clamored  for  new  ones.  Its  hungry  maw  no  sops 
could  satisfy ;  and  at  length,  when  the  reign  of  the 
first  of  the  Plantagenets  dawned,  Kome  claimed, 

*  See  Fox,  Acts  and  Monuments,  p.  211. 


I 


through  the  lips  of  Becket,  the  total  immunity  of 
ecclesiastics  from  the  secular  jurisdiction.*  The 
controversy  which  ensued  was  long  and  bitter. 
How  disastrously  it  ended  for  the  interests  of  lib- 
erty history  records. 

"  It  is  the  first  step  that  costs,"  says  the  prov- 
erb ;  and  when  England  began  to  yield,  she  made 
no  pause,  but  flung  herself  recklessly  into  the  abyss. 
King  John,  the  most  despicable  of  crowned  heads, 
the  butt  of  his  contemporaries'  sarcasms,  the  stran- 
gler  of  his  nephew,  of  whom  his  subjects  said,  "  You 
are  not  a  king,  nor  even  a  kingling'' —fuisti  rex, 
nuncfex — once  a  king,  now  a  clown — ^became  the 
pope's  vassal,  was  his  armed  missionary,  and  even 
stooped  to  do  homage  to  the  pontiff's  legate  on  his 
bended  knees  for  his  kingdom,  and  to  pay  tribute.t 
So  low  had  the  papacy  brought  England. 
Then  came  a  phase  of  resistance  to  these  usur- 
pations.    Grostete  protested,  Bradwardine  argued, 
Edward  III.  actively  resisted  Eome,  and  Wickliffe 
was  the  John  Baptist  of  the  English  Eeformation. 
England,  weary  of  the  yoke  of  Eome,  grew  rest- 
less and  began  to  fret.    Wickliffe  was  the  father  of 
this  dissent  from  Eome.    Wickliffe  was  also  the 
progenitor  of  the  Puritans. 

It  becomes  of  interest  therefore,  to  glance  briefly 
at  the  salient  characteristics  of  his  career.  His 
era  was  an  oasis  in  the  desert.    His  words  were 

•  Webb,  Life  of  Wickliffe,  p.  75.     D'Aubign^,  Ref.  in  Eng. 
t  Matthew  Paris,  p.  231.     Hume,  Lingard,  etc.     Also  Roger 
of  Wendover's  Flowers  of  History,  vol.  2,  Bolen's  ed.,  pp.  215,  271. 


^}  L 


42 


HISTQEY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


tlie  first  breath  of  liealtliful  doctrine  whicli  had 
passed  over  England  for  many  a  weary  day. 

John  Wickliffe  was  born  in  1324.*  He  was  cra- 
dled in  a  Yorkshire  hamlet  ;t  but  of  his  boyhood 
little  is  known.:]:  In  1348  he  was  attending  lectures 
at  Oxford,  where  he  sat  at  the  feet  of  Bradwardine.§ 

At  the  outset,  Wickliffe,  like  all  who  aspired  to 
eminence  in  those  days,  devoted  himself  to  scholas- 
tic philosophy ;  and  with  such  success,  that  his  con- 
temporary and  opponent  Knighton  has  acknow- 
ledged that  he  was  "  second  to  none  in  philosophy, 
and  that  in  scholastic  subtlety  he  was  altogether 
incomparable."!! 

He  was  also  learned  in  the  civil  and  the  canon 
law;  and  he  had  gi'asped  the  municipal  laws  of 
England.^  There  was  no  domain  of  knowledge 
which  he  did  not  lay  under  contribution  ;  there  ex- 
isted no  peak  of  learning  which  the  towering  genius 
of  this  "admirable  Crichton"  of  divinity  did  not  im- 
pel him  to  scale. 

"  It  was  well,"  remarks  one  of  his  biographers, 
"that  Wickliffe  went  forth  to  'his  achievements 
sheathed  in  the  panoply  of  the  intellectual  knight- 
errantry  of  his  day ;  that  he  was  master  of  *  the  nice 
fence  and  the  active  practice'  of  the  schools,  as 
well  as  potent  to  wield  the  two-edged  sword  of  the 
Spirit.     This   happy  combination  of  accomplish- 

•*  Webb,  life  of  Wickliffe,  p.  99.     Also  Lewis,  and  other  biog- 
raphers, t  Ibid.  t  rnnchard,  vol.  1,  p.  237. 
§  D'Aubigne,  Kef.  in  Eng.,  p.  84. 
li  Knighton,  De  Eventibus  Angliae,  col.  2644. 
U  Webb,  Life  of  WickUflfo,  p.  102. 


AN  OASIS  IN  THE  DESEKT. 


43 


ments  served  to  win  him  the  respect  of  all  parties. 
It  secured  him  the  reverence  of  his  followers,  who 
must  have  seen  with  justifiable  pride  that  their 
teacher  was  foremost  among  the  sages  and  doctors 
of  his  time.  It  silenced  the  voice  of  disdain,  and 
effectually  disabled  his  adversaries  from  attempting 
to  cast  discredit  upon  his  cause  by  ridiculing  the 
ignorance  and  incapacity  of  the  advocate."* 

Wickliffe  having  mastered  the  human  sciences, 
next  turned  to  the  Scriptures.t  Whatever  sludy 
he  commenced  he  aimed  to  exhaust.  Of  this  study 
was  begotten  his  conversion.  He  marked  the  fatal 
departure  of  the  papacy  from  the  biblical  paths. 
The  truths  which  he  had  discerned  he  determined 
to  proclaim.  The  new  moral  world  which  he  had 
discovered,  the  great  Columbus  of  ethics  felt  con- 
strained to  make  known. 

"  He  commenced  with  prudence ;  but  being 
elected,  in  1361,  warden  of  Baliol,  and  in  1365 
warden  of  Canterbury  college  also,  he  began  to  set 
forth  the  doctrine  of  faith  more  energetically.  His 
biblical  and  theological  studies,  his  knowledge  of 
theology,  his  penetrating  mind,  the  purity  of  his 
life  and  manners,  and  his  unbending  courage,  ren- 
dered him  the  object  of  general  admiration.  A 
profound  teacher,  like  his  master  Bradwardine,  and 
an  eloquent  preacher,  he  demonstrated  to  the  learn- 
ed through  the  week  what  he  intended  to  preach, 
and  on  Sunday  he  preached  to  the  people  what  he 

•  Webb,  Life  of  Wickliffe,  p.  105. 
f  Punchard,  vol.  1,  p.  240. 


u 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


had  previously  demonstrated.  His  disputations 
gave  strength  to  his  sermons,  and  his  sermons  shed 
new  hght  on  his  disputations.  He  accused  the 
clergy  of  having  banished  the  holy  Scriptures,  and 
he  required  that  the  authority  of  the  Bible  should 
be  reestablished  in  the  church.  Loud  acclamations 
crowned  these  discussions,  and  the  crowd  of  vulgar 
papists  trembled  witli  indignation  when  they  heard 
the  shouts  of  applause."* 

Wickliffe's  public  life  had  four  phases. 

The  first  was  poUtical. 

The  larger  part  of  his  life  was  spent  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  III.,  one  of  the  most  vigorous  and  states- 
manlike of  the  English  kings.  King  John  had  alien- 
ated the  kingdom,  and  paid  tribute  to  the  pope.f 
The  money  had  always  been  paid  irregularly.  Lat- 
terly all  payments  had  ceased.  Pope  Urban  Y., 
heedless  of  the  laurels  won  by  the  conqueror  at 
Crecy  and  Poitiers,  summoned  Edward  III.  to  rec- 
ognize him  as  the  legitimate  sovereign  of  Eng- 
land, and  to  forward  the  annual  rent  of  a  thousand 
marcs.t  In  case  of  refusal,  the  king  was  cited  to 
appear  at  Rome. 

The  conqueror  of  the  Valois,  irritated  by  this 
insolence  of  an  Italian  bishop,  convened  a  Parlia- 
ment. The  papal  arrogance  stirred  England  to 
its  depths.  In  1350  the  statute  of  Provisors  was 
passed.    It  was  rendered  a  penal  offence  for  any 

♦  D'Aubign^,  Kef.  in  Eng.,  p.  85.  'f  Chap.  2,  p.  39. 

I  Eanke,  Hist,  of  the  Pope's  Pontificate  of  Urban  V.     Hume ; 
Lingard. 


AN  OASIS  IN  THE  DESERT. 


45 


one  to  procure  a  presentation  to  a  benefice  from 
the  court  of  Eome.*  By  the  subsequent  statute  of 
Prcemunire,  any  person  who  carried  a  cause  before 
the  pope  by  appeal  from  home  jurisdiction  was  out- 
lawed.t 

"If  .the  statute  of  mortmain  put  the  pope  in  a 
sweat,'*  says  old  Fuller,  "  this  of  prcemunire  gave 
him  a  fit  of  fever."J 

Through  all  this  controversy,  "Wickliffe  was  ac- 
tive. At  once  an  able  poHtician  and  a  fervent  Chris- 
tian, he  vigorously  defended  the  rights  of  the  Brit- 
ish crown  against  Eomish  aggression.  His  tracts 
upon  this  momentous  question  are  profound  and 
statesmanhke.  They  created  a  sensation ;  and  at- 
tracting the  attention  of  the  king,  he  made  Wick- 
liffe one  of  his  chaplains.§  That  act  rang  the  death- 
knell  to  the  papal  claim  to  the  sovereignty  of  Eng- 
land. 

The  second  phase  of  Wickliffe's  ministry  was, 
the  preaching  of  the  gospel  to  the  poor. 

During  the  heat  of  the  controversy  on  the  sov- 
ereignty of  Great  Britain,  Wickliffe  had  been  dis- 
patched on  a  mission  to  the  pope  at  Avignon.  On 
his  return,  he  was  given  the  cure  of  Lutterworth  ;|| 
and  from  that  time  a  practical  activity  was  added  to 
his  speculative  and  academic  influence. 

"At  Oxford,"  says  D'Aubign^,  "he  spoke  as  a 
master  to  young  theologians.    There  he  had  earned 


•  Hume,  vol.  1,  p.  371,  Reign  of  Edward  HL  f  Ibid. 

X  Fuller,  Chh.  Hist.,  cent  14,  p.  118. 

§  D'Aubigne,  p.  86.  ||  Lewis,  Webb,  etc. 


46 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


the  honorable  and  unique  title  of  *  The  Gospel  Doc- 
tor.' In  his  parish  he  addressed  the  people  as  a 
friend  and  pastor — a  new  and  beautiful  relation."* 

The  third  phase  of  his  beneficent  career  was  the 
translation  of  the  Bible  into  EngHsh.  Scholasti- 
cism had  placed  the  Scriptures  under  ban.  Kome 
assumed  to  be  the  infallible  oracle ;  and  she  pad- 
locked the  evangelists  in  musty  Latin.  Wickhffe 
unlocked  the  dungeons  of  the  imprisoned  gospel, 
and  set  it  free. 

The  effect  was  prodigious.  Minds  were  every- 
where enlightened ;  souls  were  everywhere  convert- 
ed ;  the  birth  of  a  new  era  was  hailed  with  accla- 
mations. But  the  priests  snarled  and  threatened. 
"Master  Wickliffe,"  said  the  monks,  "has,  by 
translating  the  Bible  into  English,  rendered  it  more 
acceptable  and  inteUigible  to  laymen,  and  even  to 
women,  than  it  has  hitherto  been  to  the  learned. 
The  gospel  pearl  is  everywhere  cast  out  and  trod- 
den under  foot  of  swine,  "f 

Theology  was  Wickliffe's  fourth  phase ;  and  in 
the  cloister  of  Oxford  he  began  to  inculcate  the 
distinctive  doctrines  of  Protestantism — salvation 
through  faith  in  Christ,  and  the  sole  infalhbility  of 
the  sacred  Scriptures. J 

Europe  heard  this  brave  preaching  aghast.  The 
mendicant  friars,  who  swarmed  in  England,  listened 


♦  D'Aubign6,  p.  87. 

t  Knighton,  De  Eventibus  Anglise,  p.  264 
X  Sett  the  various  biographies  of  Wickliffe ;   also  Punchard's 
Summary  of  his  Doctrines,  vol.  1,  pp.  2G9-310,  passim. 


IV 


r 


I 


*n 


AN  OASIS  IN  THE  DESERT. 


47 


# 


in  agony.  "  I  should  suspect,"  says  Fuller,  "  that 
his  preaching  had  no  salt  in  it  who  made  no  galled 
horse  wince.'* 

WickHffe  did  not  tread  on  flowers.     He  was 
more  or  less  persecuted  throughout  his  whole  ca- 
reer ;  but  during  the  life  of  Edward  III,  the  favor 
of  that  gallant  prince  sheltered  the  bold  reformer ; 
the  throne  of  England  was  his  aegis.     On  Edward's 
death,  in  1377,  it  seemed  certain  that  the  Koman 
court  would  avenge  itseK ;  but  Hhe  notorious  papal 
schism  which  immediately  succeeded,  occasioned  by 
the  election  of  two  pontiffs  to  the  vacant  throne  of 
Gregory  XL,  once  more  saved  WickHffe.     Through 
the  remainder  of  his  hfe,  the  scandalous  quarrels  of 
the  rival  popes  at  Avignon  and  at  Kome  so  occu- 
pied the  attention  of  the  church  that  the  great  Eng- 
lishman enjoyed  comparative  immunity. 

The  story  of  Wickhffe's  Hfe  reads  like  a  page 
culled  from  the  chapter  of  romance.  But  through 
all  vicissitudes,  he  Hved  to  see  his  sixty-first  year ; 
and  he  died  in  the  very  service  of  the  altar.* 

Had  Wickliffe  completed  that  reformation  which 
he  only  inaugurated,  the  Protestantism  of  England 
might  have  been  moulded  in  the  form  of  the  Prot- 
estantism of  republican  Geneva ;  for  "  it  must  be 
plainly  confessed,"  remarks  a  modern  English  critic, 
"  that  there  is  a  close  resemblance  between  Wick- 
liffe and  at  least  the  better  part  of  the  Puritans  who 
troubled  our  Israel  in  the  reign  of  EKzabeth  and 
her  successors.    The  likeness  is  sufficiently  strik- 

*  Lewis,  Webb,  Fox,  Vaughan,  etc. 


/  # 


48 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS,  v 


If' 


ing  to  mark  him  out  as  their  progenitor  and  proto- 
type."* 

Singularly  gifted,  ripe  in  experience,  a  profound 
teacher,  a  pure  iconoclast,  a  luminous  Christian,  an 
enlightened  patriot,  Hampden  and  Milton  need  not 
blush  to  take  Wickliflfe,  the  one  by  the  right  hand, 
the  other  by  the  left,  and  say,  "  Behold  our  father !" 

•  Webb,  p.  325. 


\l 


J 


THE  DAWN  OF  DAY. 


49 


CHAPTEE   III. 

THE  DAWN  OF  DAY. 

It  has  been  said  that  William  of  Normandy, 
Edward  III.,  Wickliffe,  and  the  Keformation,  are 
the  four  ascending  steps  of  Protestantism  in  Eng- 
land. Up  three  of  these  the  gospel  had  already 
climbed;  it  now  stood  on  the  last,  and  prepared 
to  hurl  the  papal  usurper  from  the  throne  of  the 
island. 

Even  within  ten  years  after  the  death  of  Wick- 
lijffe,  Britain  appeared  to  have  been  revolutionized. 
LoUardism*  seemed  about  to  new  model  the  church. 
To  the  licentious  ostentation  of  the  papal  clergy, 
Wickliffe's  disciples  opposed  a  Christian  humility ; 

o  The  true  definition  of  the  word  LoUard  has  been  the  subject 
of  no  little  controversy.  Like  the  terms  Huguenot,  Puritan,  and 
Methodist,  conferred  in  later  times,  it  seems  to  have  been  origi- 
nally bestowed  as  a  contemptuous  nickname.  Fuller  appears  to 
think  that  the  Lollards  were  so  called  from  Walter  Lollardiis,  one 
of  their  German  teachers.  Church  History,  p.  163,  folio  edition. 
Speed,  quoted  in  Walsingham,  p.  588,  folio  ed.,  says  that  "Wick- 
liffe's followers  were,  in  the  phrase  of  those  dark  days,  called  Lol- 
lards, {lolium  signifieth  cocUle  and  such  weeds  ;)  whereas,  in  truth, 
they  endeavored  to  extirpate  all  i^ernicious  weeds  which,  through 
time,  sloth,  and  fraud,  had  crept  into  the  field  of  God's  church." 
Mosheim  thinks  that  the  name  was  derived  from  the  German 
word  lullen  or  lollen,  which  means  to  sing  softlj^  whence  our  Eng- 
lish word  luU;  and  this  because  the  Lollards  made  great  use  of 
singing  in  their  worship.  Cent.  14,  pt.  2,  ch.  2,  n.  68.  See  also 
Punch'ard,  vol.  1,  pp.  314-316. 


\ 


50 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


i.< ' 


I 


to  tlie  degenerate  asceticism  of  the  mendicant  or- 
ders, a  spiritual  and  free  life.  "  Every  minister," 
said  they,  "  can  administer  the  sacraments,  and  is 
competent  to  confer  the  cure  of  souls  equally  with 
the  pope."*  The  Lollards  recognized  a  ministry 
independent  of  Kome,  founded,  not  on  the  permis- 
sion of  popes  or  the  decrees  of  councils,  but  on  the 
Scripture  text. 

Around  these  pure  teachers  all  classes  crowded; 
grim-visaged  men-at-arms  listened  sword  in  hand, 
ready  to  defend  them ;  the  nobility  began  to  take 
down  the  images  from  their  baronial  chapels  ;t 
even  the  walls  of  the  cathedrals  were  placarded 
with  parchments  satirizing  the  friars  and  lampoon- 
ing the  vices  which  they  defended.^  Indeed  so 
strong  did  LoUardism  feel  itself  to  be,  that,  in 
1395,  a  petition  was  presented  to  Parliament  urg- 
ing a  radical  reformation.§ 

Nor  was  the  agitation  confined  to  the  island. 
The  gospel  breeze  swept  across  the  Channel,  across 
the  Netherlands— those  countries  which  the  plod- 
ding patience  of  ages  has  wrenched  from  the  ocean 
and  dedicated  to  civilization  and  religion — across 
Germany,  across  Bohemia.ll  Sleepers  were  awak- 
ened. The  shroud  of  souls  was  riven.  Wickliffe's 
pamphlets  were  received  with  enthusiasm.  Mediae- 
val Europe,  bUnd  and  shackled  as  it  was,  half  stag- 

o  Walsingham,  p.  388. 

t  Knighton,  De  Eventibus,  etc.,  lib.  5,  p.  2660.        X  Ibid. 
§  Lewis,  Life  of  Wickliffe,  p.  338 ;  Webb,  and  others. 
II  Waddington,  Ch.  History.    GiUett,  Life  of  Husa. 


THE  DAWN  OF  DAY. 


51 


I 


i 


I 


«• 


gered  to  its  feet  to  salute  the  new  tenets.  Huss 
was  Wickliffe's  spiritual  son ;  the  lurid  fire  of  Con- 
stance was  kindled  in  England.  The  exiled  Vau- 
dois,  driven  by  the  fierce  harries  of  the  Koman  cru- 
saders from  fair  Languedoc  to  seek  shelter  beneath 
the  crags  of  mountainous  Bohemia,  hastened,  un- 
der the  influence  of  Wickliffe's  inspiration,  to  reor- 
ganize that  ancient  church  which  the  Inquisition 
had  failed  to  choke. 

But  while  the  Continent  was  thus  stirring,  Eng- 
land was  torn  by  persecution.  The  papacy  had 
long  followed  the  scent  of  heresy  with  keen  nos- 
trils, but  with  muzzled  jaws.  It  had  quitted  its 
lair,  and,  like  a  long-leashed  and  hungry  hound,  it 
now  sprang  at  the  throat  of  its  victim. 

Kichard  11.,  the  weak  successor  of  Edward  III., 
was  formally  deposed,  and  a  usurper  bought  the 
crown  by  steeping  himself  to  the  lips  in  oaths  to 
suppress  LoUardism. 

Rome,  ever  watchful  to  take  advantage  of  revo- 
lutions, had  engineered  this  one.  Arundel,  a  cun- 
ning priest  and  an  astute  politician,  was  then  pri- 
mate of  England.  He  advised  Henry  IV.  to  con- 
solidate his  mushroom  power  by  conciliating  the 
papacy.  The  king,  remembering  that  a  former 
pontiff  had  sanctified  the  robber-raid  of  the  Nor- 
man conqueror,  esteemed  Arundel's  advice  to  be 
good,  and  he  muttered,  "Persecute."* 

Then  martyrdom  succeeded  martyrdom.  The 
Lollards,  baring  their  heads  to  "  the  pelting  of  the 

•  Fuller,  Ch.  History,  p.  153. 


52 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 


pitiless  storm,"  could  only  wail  out  their  agony  in 
God's  ear;  they  sobbed  themselves  to  sleep  in 
Jesus. 

The  persecutions  covered  a  large  part  of  a  cen- 
tury. The  hunted  reformers  hid  themselves  among 
the  lower  classes,  preached  in  secret,  burrowed  in 
English  catacombs,*  or  bore  stout  witness  to  the 
truth  in  massive  dungeon-keeps  and  "  Lollard  tow- 
ers."t  Even  the  sanctity  of  the  graVe  was  violated ; 
and  by  a  decree  of  the  Council  of  Constance,  Wi'ck- 
liffe's  mouldering  bones  were  disinterred  and  burn- 
ed, while  the  ashes  were  thrown  into  a  neighboring 
brook-t  "The  brook,"  says  Fuller,  "did  convey 
his  ashes  into  Avon,  Avon  into  Severn,  Severn  into 
the  narrow  seas,  they  into  the  main  ocean,  and 
thus  the  ashes  of  Wickliffe  are  the  emblem  of  his 
doctrine,  which  now  is  dispersed  all  the  world 
over."J 

The  intervention  of  the  civil  wars  of  the  "Roses" 
in  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  somewhat 
blunted  the  edge  of  persecution.  Between  the  em- 
battled ranks  of  the  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster 
the  demon  of  religious  bigotry  stood  disarmed. 
Ladeed,  scarred  and  barbarized  by  war,  civility 
itself  seemed  at  its  last  gasp.  "  The  sound  of  bells 
in  the  steeple,"  remarks  an  old  historian,  "was 
drowned  by  the  noise  of  drums  and  trumpets. 
And  yet  this  good  was  done  by  the  civil  wars,  that 

*  See  Eaynauld,  Ann.  H14,  and  onwards.  f  Ibid, 

X  Lewis,  Life  of  Wickliffe  ;  Webb ;  Puncbard,  etc. 
§  Fuller,  Church  History. 


THE  DAWN  OF  DAY. 


53 


\ 


i 


they  diverted  the  prelates  from  troubhng  the  Lol- 
lards ;  so  that  this  very  civil  storm  was  a  shelter  to 
those  poor  souls,  and  the  heat  of  these  intestine 
enormities  cooled  the  persecution."* 

Still,  that  quaint  old  martyrologist,  Eox,  in- 
forms us,  that  "  from  the  time  of  Kichard  IL  there 
was  no  reign  of  any  king  in  which  some  good  man 
or  devoted  woman  did  not  suffer  the  pains  of  fire 
for  the  religion  and  true  testimony  of  Christ  Je- 
sus."t 

Marked  by  these  vicissitudes,  the  generations 
hastened  by  on  winged  feet.    In  1485,  the  interne- 
cine struggle  touched  its  climax  on  the  fiital  plain 
of  Bosworth ;  that  subtle  and  enigmatic  tyrant  Eich- 
ard  III.  was  hurled  from  his  stolen  throne  into  an 
untimely  grave.     The  Lancastrian  conqueror  was 
proclaimed  king  under  the  title  of  Henry  TIL,  and 
this  title-deed  to  the  kingdom,  substantiated  by 
battle,  was  in  the  foHowing  year  rendered  doubly 
valid  by  a  marriage  which  seated  the  representa- 
tives both  of  the  White  and  the  Eed  Eoses  on  the 
throne.} 

Then  the  first  of  the  Tudors  began  to  exhibit 
the  intolerant  spirit  which  had  animated  his  ances- 
tors. He  showed  the  same  subserviency  to  the 
clergy ;  he  manifested  the  same  unchristian  malig- 
nity.§ 

\  o  Fuller,  Church  History.  f  Fox,  Acts,  etc. 

t  Hume,  Eeigns  of  Richard  m.  and  Henry  VH. 
§  For  a  striking  account  of  the  persecutions  under  Henry  YJL 
Bee  Fox,  Acts  and  Monuments,  vol.  1,  p.  882,  and  onwards,  pasl 

Sim  '    * 


BUU. 


u 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


But  tlie  hour  of  vengeance  was  already  in  God's 
heart.  It  hurried  forward  with  speedy  but  stealthy 
feet.  "  Ketribution,"  it  is  said,  "has  a  foot  of  vel- 
vet, but  a  hand  of  steel."  In  the  midst  of  the  moan- 
ing of  God's  children,  an  arm  was  upHfted  which 
was  soon  to  smite  the  scalp  of  this  gigantic  and 
godless  oppression. 

•  In  the  tenth  year  of  the  sixteenth  century  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.  commenced — an  event  for  ever 
memorable.  It  was  the  beginning  of  modern  his- 
tory. In  that  new  era  "  all  those  events  happened, 
and  all  those  revolutions  began,"  says  BoUngbroke, 
"which  have  produced  so  vast  a  change  in  the 
manners,  customs,  and  interests  of  European  na- 
tions, and  in  the  whole  pohcy,  ecclesiastical  and 
civil,  of  these  parts  of  the  world,"* 

In  morals,  as  in  physics,  after  an  ebb  comes  the 
full  tide.  A  calm,  devout,  suffering,  but  patient 
protest  against  the  prevalent  corruptions  of  relig- 
ion had  been  uttered  in  England  since  the  death  of 
Wickliffe.  Now  the  invention  of  printing,  the  cir- 
culation of  bookSj  the  dispersion  of  learned  men, 
and  the  persuasive  teaching  of  Continental  reform- 
ers united  to  give  that  worn  protest  fresh  life  and 
emphasis.  Across  the  yawning  chasm  of  a  hun- 
dred years  men  stretched  their  palms  to  join  hands 
with  the  Lollards  of  the  age  of  Wickliffe.  A  new 
light  dazzled  in  the  horizon.  Luther  launched  the 
Eeformation  in  Germany.    Zwingle  awoke  the  joy- 

o  BoUngbroke,  Letters  on  the  Study  and  Use  of  History,  let- 
ter 6. 


THE  DAWN  OF  DAY. 


65 


ous  echoes  of  the  Swiss  Alps  by  the  repetition  of 
the  magic  words,  "  Keligious  Liberty."  Tyndale 
once  more  unchained  the  Bible  through  an  English 
translation. 

A  host  of  devout,  learned,  and  ingenious  men  in 

England  labored  to  effect  a  reformation.     Every 

weapon  which  honorable  men  could  use  was  brought 

out  from  the  intellectual  armory  and  pressed  into 

active  use.    The  universities  were  early  revolutign- 

ized.   Bilney,  converted  by  reading  Erasmus'  Greek 

Testament,*  began  to  preach.     Latimer  arose,  and 

he  maintained  fi'om  the  Cambridge  pulpits  that 

the  Bible   ought  to  bo  read  in  the  vernacular.t 

"  The  Author  of  Holy  Scripture,"  said  he,  "  is  God 

himself ;  and  this  Scripture  partakes  of  the  might 

and  eternity  of  its  Author.     There  is  neither  king 

nor  emperor  that  is  not  bound  to  obey  it.     Let  us 

beware  of  those  by-paths  of  human  tradition,  full 

of  stones,  brambles,  and  uprooted  trees.     Let  us 

follow  the  straight  road  of  the  word.     It  does  not 

concern  us  what  the  fathers  have  done,  but  rather 

what  they  ought  to  have  done."t      Then  came 

Barnes  and  Frith,  the  bosom  friends  of  Tyndale, 

and  the  two  Eidleys  and  Cranmer  followed.    These 

men,  the  fathers  of  the  English  Eeformation,  were 

all  illustrious  scholars,  and  they  had  most  of  them 

been  eminent  either  for  zeal  or  piety  in  the  Koman 

o  Fox,  Acts,  etc.,  vol.  4,  p.  633. 

f  D'Aubign^,  p.  247. 

X  Latimer's  Sermons,  Park.  Soc,  vol.  1,  p.  70,  Sermon  on  the 

Plough. 


ll 


56 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


communion.  Their  opposition  to  the  papacy  was 
the  result  of  their  intimate  knowledge  of  the  vulgar 
errors  of  the  holy  see.  This  acquaintance  with  the 
Babylonish  mysteries  added  fresh  pungency  to 
their  epigrams  and  gave  new  point  to  their  sat- 
ires. 

"Do  you  know,"  said  Latimer,  "who  is  the  most 
diligent  bishop  in  England?  I  see  you  listening 
and  hearkening  that  I  should  name  him.  I  will 
tell  you.  It  is  the  devil.  He  is  never  out  of  his 
diocese;  you  shall  never  find  him  idle.  Call  for 
him  when  you  will,  he 's  ever  at  home,  he  is  ever  at 
the  plough.  You  shall  never  find  him  remiss,  I  war- 
rant you.  Where  the  devil  is  resident,  there  away 
with  books  and  up  with  candles ;  away  with  Bibles, 
and  up  with  beads ;  away  with  the  light  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  up  with  the  light  of  wax  tapers,  yea,  at 
noonday;  down  with  Christ's  cross,  up  with  the 
purgatory  pick-purse :  away  with  clothing  the  na- 
ked, the  poor,  the  impotent;  up  with  decking  of 
images  and  gay  garnishing  of  stones  and  stocks ; 
down  with  God  and  his  most  holy  word ;  up  with 
traditions,  human  councils,  and  a  blinded  pope. 
Oh  that  our  prelates  would  be  as  diligent  to  sow 
the  corn  of  good  doctrine,  as  Satan  is  to  sow  cockle 
and  darnel."* 

The  grand  distinctive,  principle  of  Tyndale,  of 
Frith,  of  Latimer,  of  the  Kidleys,  of  Bradford,  was 
the  divine  authority  and  sufficiency  of  the  sacred 

•  Latimer's  Sermons,  Park.  Soc,  vol.  1,  p.  70,  Sermon  on  tlie 
Plough. 


« 


THE  DAWN  OF  DAY. 


57 


Scriptures,  and  the  consequent  rejection  of  the 
earth-born  authority  of  popes,  councils,  fathers, 
and  kings,  in  all  matters  that  pertained  to  rehgion. 
The  Bible  was  their  standard,  as  it  was  Luther's 
and  Bucer's ;  to  that  touchstone  they  brought  every 
thing.  If  the  Scripture  approved  it,  well;  if  not, 
then  away  with  it. 

It  was  this  principle  which  gave  emphasis  and 
color  to  their  apostleship,  as  it  did  afterwards  to 
that  of  their  descendants  the  Puritans.  It  was  this 
which  sustained  Tyndale  in  his  weary  exile — this 
which  enabled  Latimer  and  Ridley  and  Bradford 
at  a  later  day  to  brave  the  awful  fire. 

But  in  iShe  mean  time  this  healthy  stir  was 
frowned  upon  by  the  government.  Cardinal  Wol- 
sey,  who  really  controlled  England,  was  a  deter- 
mined and  unscrupulous  enemy  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. The  king  himself  had  entered  the  lists 
against  Martin  Luther,  and  in  grateful  return  for 
his  services,  the  pontiff  had  crowned  him  Defender 
of  the  Faith.^  In  1521,  Henry  fulminated  a  decree 
against  home  heresy.t  Up  to  the  year  1527,  the 
record  of  the  Bluebeard  king  was  that  of  the  most 
blind  and  unscrupulous  adhesion  to  Rome.  J 

Then  occurred  a  strange  event :  a  question  of 
divorce  broke  the  chains  which  bound  England  to 
the  papal  throne. 

Soon  after  his  assumption  of  the  purple,  Henry 

o  Froude,  Hist.  Eng.,  Henry  Vm. 

f  Strype,  Eccl.  Mem.    Burnet,  vol.  1,  part  1,  book  1,  pp.  18, 
19.  %  Ibid. 

3* 


58 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


Yin.  married  his  brotlier  Arthur's  widow,  Catha- 
rine of  Aragon.    Many  circumstances  combined  to 
render  the  nuptials  ill-omened.     The  lady  was  the 
young  monarch's  elder  by  six  years.*    Henry  dis- 
liked her ;  and  when  first  told  that  the  union  was 
under  consideration,  he  formally  protested  against 
it.t     "  Very  many,  both  cardinals  and  divines,  did 
oppose  it"  on  scriptural  grounds.^      Henry  YII. 
himself,  the  originator  and  chief  promoter  of  the 
match,  is  said,  when  on  his  death-bed,  to  have  be- 
come convinced  of  its  illegahty,  and  to  have  charged 
his  son  not  to  consummate  it.§    Yet,  spite  of  these 
objections,  any  one  of  which  might  have  been  es- 
teemed sufficient  to  checkmate  the  plan,  political 
reasons  crowned  it  with  success.     Catharine  was 
the  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella ;  she  was 
also  the  aunt  of  the  emperor  Charles  Y.,  the  Char- 
lemagne of  his  age,  and  she  brought  the  kingdom 
an  immense  dowry.ll    It  was  thought  also  that  the 
marriage  would  strengthen  and  enrich  the  island, 
bind  England  and  Spain  in  indissoluble  bonds,  and 
chain  both  to  the  Koman  see.1I   These  potent  argu- 

*  Herbert's  Henry  VHI.,  pp.  7,  8.  Burnet,  Hist.  Bef.,  vol.  1, 
part  1,  book  2. 

f  Ibid.     The  protest  is  dated  June  27,  1505. 

X  This  text  in  Leviticus  was  cited  against  the  marriage :  **  If  a 
man  shall  take  his  brother's  wife,  it  is  an  unclean  thing; .  .  .  they 
shall  be  childless."    Lev.  20 :  21. 

§  Herbert,  Burnet,  and  others- 

II  Her  dowry  was  200,000  ducats,  equivalent  to  $480,000  in 
American  gold.  This  was  doubtless  one  grand  reason  why  Henry 
VH,  the  most  miserly  of  kings,  was  anxious  to  secure  the  mar- 
riage. IT  Punchard,  vol.  2,  p.  39. 


THE  DAWN  OF  DAY. 


69 


ments  might  not  be  resisted ;  so  a  papal  dispensa- 
tion ratified  and  legahzed  the  union.^ 

The  royal  couple  lived  together  during  eighteen 
years.  In  that  time  Henry,  who  was  passionately 
desirous  of  children,  lost  no  less  than  six  in  rapid 
succession.!  But  one  lived,  the  "Lady  Mary"  of 
bloody  memory.  Some  time  in  1527  the  king  also 
saw  and  became  enamoured  of  Anne  Boleyn,  one 
of  the  beauties  of  his  court.  J 

Urged  equally  by  love  and  the  death  of  his  chil- 
dren, which  he  regarded  as  a  providential  punish- 
ment upon  his  unlawful  and  incestuous  marriage,§ 
Henry,  in  the  fall  of  1527,  demanded  a  divorce,  and 
he  dispatched  an  ambassador  to  Eome  to  obtain 
the  papal  dispensation. 

Queen  Catharine  was  of  course  bitterly  opposed 
to  a  divorce  which  would  illegitimatize  her  children, 
and  convict  her  of  having  lived  in  adultery  eighteen 
years.  She  poured  her  griefs  into  the  ear  of  her 
nephew  Charles  Y.  The  emperor  naturally  sided 
with  his  aunt.  He  was  then  in  the  full  flush  of  his 
military  triumphs  on  the  Continent,  and  holding 
the  pontiff  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  he  forbade  the 
issue  of  a  dispensation.il 

Consequently,  when  Henry's  ambassador  reach- 
ed the  Eoman  court,  he  was  met  by  equivocations, 
beguiled  by  words,  put  off  by  promises.     Clement 

*>  Herbert ;  Burnet ;  Hume  ;  Froude,  etc. 
t  Froude,  Hist.  Eng.,  vol.  1,  pp.  115-118. 
1  Cavendish,  Life  of  Wolscy,  pp.  118-134.     Herbert's  Henry 
Vin.,  p.  284.  §  Froude,  vol.  1,  p.  115. 

I|  D'Aubign^,  chs.  9-12,  passim. 


4 


60 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUBITANS. 


VII.  dared  not  comply  with  the  English  king's  im- 
perious order. 

In  the  mean  time  Henry  began  to  chafe.  Wol- 
sey  sent  courier  after  courier  to  implore  the  pope 
to  hasten,  picturing  the  anger  of  the  king,  the 
spread  of  heresy,  and  the  imminent  danger  of  los- 
ing the  island  to  the  church  in  case  of  the  aliena- 
tion of  the  monarch.* 

The  pope  was  between  Scylla  and  Charybdis ; 
on  either  side  his  boat  would  be  dashed  to  pieces. 
But  Charles  V.  was  nearer  than  Henry  VIII. ;  he 
was  also  more  dreaded.  So  Clement  continued  to 
procrastinate.  Through  five  years  of  chicanery  the 
divorce  dragged. t 

Then  Henry  lost  patience;  he  hurled  bittei* 
oaths  at  the  pope ;  he  cursed  the  college  of  cardi- 
nals ;  he  disgraced  Wolsey  ;:j:  and  taking  the  divorce 
into  his  own  hands,  he  had  it  decreed  by  a  home 
tribunal  ;§  then  he  barricaded  Kome  out  of  England 
by  statutes. 

The  great  minister's  prediction  was  verified — 
Britain  was  lost  to  the  Boman  see. 

As  for  TVolsey,  broken  and  discrowned,  like  the 
eftete  faith  whose  representative  he  was,  he  retired 
from  his  gorgeous  palace  into  a  hovel  to  die.  He 
could  only  sigh, 

"Ftirewell,  a  long  farewell,  to  all  my  greatness." 

®  D'Aubign^,  cts.  9-12,  passim. 

t  D'Anbigne,  pp.  301-518,  passim. 

I  Hume,  Froude,  Lingard,  Cavendish,  Life  of  Wolsey. 

§  Ibid.     Herbert,  Life,  etc.,  of  Henry  VHI. 


I 


THE  DAWN  OF  DAY. 
He  could  only  mutter  between  his  sobs, 

"Oh,  how  wretched 
Is  that  poor  man  that  hangs  on  prince's  favors ! 
There  is,  betwixt  that  smile  he  would  aspire  to, 
That  sweet  aspect  of  princes,  and  h:s  ruin, 
More  pangs  and  fears  than  wars  or  women  have ; 
And  when  he  falls,  he  falls  like  Lucifer, 
Never  to  hope  again." 


61 


^ 


02 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 


THE   TWO   DIVOECES. 

It  is  not  necessary  in  this  resume,  if  we  may 
borrow  tlie  striking  simile  of  Hooker,  to  "  uncover 
the  cup  of  all  those  deadly  and  ugly  abominations 
wherewith  this  papistical  Jeroboam  hath  made  the 
earth  so  drunk  that  it  reeled  under  our  feet."  We 
may  accept  Fuller's  summary :  "  Seeing  that  the 
complaints  of  the  conscientious  in  all  ages  against 
the  errors  in  the  Komish  church  met  with  no  other 
entertainment  than  frowns  and  frets,  and  afterwards 
fire  and  fagot,  it  came  seasonably  into  the  minds 
of  those  who  steered  the  English  nation  to  make 
use  of  that  power  which  God  had  bestowed  upon 
them  ;  and  seeing  that  they  were  a  national  church 
under  the  civil  command  of  one  king,  he,  by  the 
advice  and  consent  of  his  clergy  in  convocation 
and  the  great  council  in  Parliament,  resolved  to 
reform  the  church  under  his  inspection  from  gross 
abuses  which  had  crept  into  it,  leaving  it  free  to 
other  churches  either  to- follow  his  example  or  to 
continue  in  their  old  condition  ;  and  on  these  terms 
the  English  Heformation  was  first  advanced."* 

From  the  downfall  of  Wolsey  to  the  Act  of  Su- 
premacy, the  Reformation  swept  on  with  regular 
and  triumphant  steps.     In  1532,  Henry  VIII.  and 

*  Fuller,  Church  History,  vol.  2,  p.  50. 


i 


THE  TWO  DIVORCES. 


63 


Anne  Boleyn  were  married.*  In  1533,  Parliament 
erased  from  the  statute-book  many  of  the  barbar- 
ous laws  against  Lollardism ;  reiterated  former  acts 
restraining  the  payment  of  ecclesiastical  dues  to 
Home ;  enacted  that  church  dignities  should  be  con- 
ferred, not  by  the  pope,  but  by  deans  and  chapters 
or  priors  and  convents,  under  the  license  of  the  king; 
and  made  provision  for  the  conduct  of  reHgious 
matters  within  the  kingdom,  without  resort  to  the 
Roman  courts.t  Besides  all  this,  the  power  here- 
tofore exercised  by  the  "apostolic  chamber"  over 
reHgious  houses  was  transferred  to  the  king.  J 

But  while  the  law  was  thus  active  in  severing 
England  from  the  holy  see  by  statute,  the  press  and 
the  pulpit  were  not  idle.  The  press  groaned  under 
the  load  of  pamphlets  daily  issued  against  the  papal 
claims.  The  pulpit  proclaimed  that  the  pontiff  had 
no  authority,  ecclesiastical  or  civil,  in  England.§ 
Even  the  dead  verbiage  of  the  statutes  grew  elo- 
quent in  the  defence  of  Hberty.  The  press  seemed 
animated  by  the  glowing  spirit  of  the  Lollards. 
The  pulpit  appeared  to  be  but  an  echo  of  the  res- 
urrected soul  of  Wickliffe. 

While  the  Parliament  was  busy  in  chattering 
law  against  Rome,  a  convocation  or  ecclesiastical 
assembly  was  in  session;  and  here  too  several 
remarkable  events  occurred.  The  clergy,  under  a 
pressure  from  the  throne,  not  only  acknowledged 


*  Herbert,  Life  of  Henry  VEIL  ;  Burnet ;  Fronde. 

t  Statutes,  25  Henry  VHL,  ch.  20.  %  Ibid.,  ch.  21. 

^  Burnet,  vol.  1,  p.  130. 


64 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


If-' 


that  their  convocations  might  only  be  assembled 
by  the  king's  writ,  but  they  addressed  the  monarch 
as  the  "  protector  and  supreme  head  of  the  church 
and  clergy  of  England" — a  title  which  he  exacted, 
and  which  was  a  little  later  ratified  by  an  act  of 
Parliament  f  and  they  promised  also,  m  verho  sa- 
cerdotiij  that  they  would  never  make  nor  execute 
any  canons  without  the  royal  assent.t 

It  may  interest  some  readers  to  learn  how  it  was 
that  this  convocation,  composed  largely  of  bitter 
Eomanists,  came  to  make  such  fatal  concessions  to 
Henry  YIII. 

When  the  king  began  to  weary  of  the  arrogance 
and  chicanery  of  Wolsey,  he  sought  for  a  pretext  to 
decree  his  downfall.  The  eager  and  cunning  law- 
yers of  the  court  instantly  opened  the  musty  stat- 
ute-book; and  pointing  out  the  statutes  oiProvisors 
and  Prcemunire,  which  enacted  that  no  Englisliman 
should  receive  bulls  from  Rome,  or  exercise  lega- 
tive  authority  in  Britain,  they  reminded  Henry 
that  "Wolsey  had  transgressed  the  law  in  both  these 
respects.  The  king  seized  the  half-forgotten  law, 
and  Wolsey  fell,  smitten  by  the  statutes  of  Frovi- 
sors  and  Frcemunire.X 

The  clergy  long  refused  to  recognize  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  king.  Then  Henry  once  more  bethought 
him  of  his  statute-book.  He  again  had  recourse  to 
the  Frovisors  and  Frcemunire.    If  Wolsey  had  exer- 


•  Burnet,  vol.  1,  pp.  214,  228. 

t  Statutes,  25  Henry  VIH.,  ch.  19. 

X  Burnet,  Hist.  Ref.,  vol,  1. 


% 


■i4 


THE  TWO  DIVORCES. 


65 


cised  the  legative  authority,  so  had  the  clergy  rec- 
ognized the  legitimacy  of  that  clearly  unlawful  pow- 
er. An  action  would  therefore  lie  against  them. 
Henry  could  put  them  out  of  his  protection,  confis- 
cate their  property,  and  imprison  their  persons : 
such  was  the  penalty  which  awaited  the  infraction 
of  the  act.  This  the  contumacious  clergy  under- 
stood ;  and  f uUy  aware  of  the  unmerciful  character 
of  the  king  when  his  own  ends  were  to  be  subserved, 
"  they  WQre  only  too  happy,"  says  Burnet, "  to  escape 
the  full  infliction  of  this  whip  of  scorpions  by  com- 
pliance with  the  royal  wishes."* 

In  1534  the  Act  of  Supremacy,  from  which  has 
grown  the  church  of  England,  was  confirmed  by 
Parliament ;  and  this  gave  the  papal  authority  in 
Britain  its  legal  coup  de  grace.\ 

In  the  following  year  the  memorable  visitation 
of  the  monasteries  began.  These  "  rehgious  houses," 
swollen  with  wicked  prosperity,  gorged  with  ill-got- 
ten gains,  and  bloated  with  license,  were  suppressed : 
the  lesser  ones  in  1536,  contemporaneously  with  a 
parliamentary  decree  extinguishing  the  authority 
of  "  the  bishop  of  Rome ;"  the  larger  ones  in  1539, f 
the  wealth  so  gained  reverting  to  the  state.§ 

A  royal  proclamation  against  holy  days  soon 
followed.    Clerical  trickery  was  uncloaked ;  Thomas 

*  Burnet,  Hist.  Ref.,  vol.  1.  We  know  of  no  one  who  has  so 
admirably  analyzed  this  page  of  history  as  Burnet. 

t  Statutes,  26  Henry  VIH.,  ch.  1,  anno  1534. 

X  Statutes  of  the  Realm,  27  Henry  VHI.,  chs.  27,  28 ;  Fuller ; 
Burnet. 

§  Froude,  voL  2,  ch.  10.    Hume. 


66 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUBITANS. 


a  Becket's  slirine  was  demolislied,  and  the  Boman 
play-house  began  to  lose  its  baby-clothes. 

Then  came  what  has  been  finely  called  "the 
Bible  era"  of  the  Reformation.  In  1537  the  first 
royal  proclamation  in  favor  of  the  EngUsh  Bible 
was  issued.*  Good  men  were  at  the  helm  of  gov- 
ernment. Thomas,  lord  Cromwell,  a  sagacious 
statesman  and  a  hearty  reformer,  became  vicar- 
general  of  England ;  Cranmer,  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, a  prelate  of  brilliant  learning,  devout  spirit, 
but  somewhat  vacillating  in  action,  ably  and  cor- 
dially supported  the  reform — sometimes  took  the 
initiative. 

The  floodgates  of  divine  truth  were  now  fairly 
opened,  and  no  power,  royal,  papal,  or  diabolical, 
was  able  to  breast  the  gracious  waters.t  "It  was 
wonderful,"  sq-ys  Strype,  "  to  see  with  what  joy  the 
book  of  God  was  received,  not  only  among  the  learn- 
eder  sort,  but  generally  all  England  over,  among 
all  the  vulgar  people ;  and  with  what  greediness 
God's  word  was  read,  and  what  resort  to  places 
where  the  reading  of  it  was.  Everybody  that  could 
bought  the  book,  or  got  others  to  read  it  to  them 
if  they  could  not  themselves.  Divers  elderly  peo- 
ple learned  to  read  on  purpose;  and  even  little 
boys  flocked  among  the  rest  to  hear  portions  of  the 
holy  Scriptures  read.":]: 

But  through  all  these  momentous  scenes  the 


•  Fox,  Acts,  etc.,  vol.  2,  pp.  324,  325. 

t  Punchard,  vol.  2,  p.  102. 

X  strype,  Life  of  Cranmer,  vol.  1,  p.  91,  Oxford  ed.,  1840. 


THE  TWO  DIVORCES.- 


67 


court  of  Kome  was  not  quiet.  In  1538  a  papal  bull 
was  fulminated,  which  outlawed  and  damned  king 
Henry,  and  which  embodied  "every  prohibitory 
and  vindictive  clause  invented  by  the  most  aspir- 
ing of  the  popes."^ 

There  was  in  England  a  large,  active,  and  schem- 
ing party  which  was  devoted  to  Kome.  At  the  head 
of  this  faction  stood  Sir  Thomas  More,t  a  states- 
man of  brilliant  acquirements,  but  a  heated  parti- 
san. It  also  numbered  among  its  adherents  very 
many  of  the  higher  nobility ;  and  below  these  swarm- 
ed a  substratum  of  monks,  who,  robbed  of  their  mo- 
nastic nests  by  the  Keformation,  bore  it  an  unre- 
lenting hate,  and  who  roamed  through  the  isl- 
and ubiquitous,  intriguing,  fomenting  insurrection, 
and  endeavoring  to  entangle  England  in  foreign 
wars.  J 

But  the  wings  of  the  Komanist  party  were  clip- 
ped ;  they  could  no  longer  soar  to  hawk  at  their 
quarry.     For  a  time  they  were  powerless — 

"Wicked  but  in  will,  of  means  bereft." 

All  this  series  of  kaleidoscopic  changes  was  the 
result  of  two  divorces :  one  from  a  woman,  and  com- 
paratively insignificant ;  the  other  from  a  creed,  and 
therefore  momentous. 

It  is  an  oft-repeated  sophism,  that  Henry  VIII. 
was  the  architect  of  the  English  Eeformation.  Oh, 
no;  the  corner-stone  of  that  stately  edifice  was  laid 

*  Bullarium  Eomanmn,  vol.  1,  p.  704. 

t  See  D'Aiibigne's  account  of  More,  Hist.  Eef.  in  England. 

t  Neale,  Hist.  Puritans,  vol.  1,  pp.  13,  14. 


68 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


1 : 


by  the  almighty  Master-builder.  Other  foundation 
can  no  man  lay.  "  The  church  of  Christ,  which  was 
from  the  beginning,  is,  and  continueth  unto  the 
end." 

Unquestionably  human  elements,  often  unfriend- 
ly elements,  entered  into  and  helped  perfect  the 
work.  The  pride  and  the  wantonness  of  Henry 
were  the  occasion  of  the  break  with  Kome  ;  but  the 
cause  lay  behind  the  passion  of  the  kingly  puppet. 
Heaven  put  Henry  to  this  use;  and  "it  is  usual 
with  God's  wisdom  and  goodness,"  says  Fuller,  "  to 
suffer  vice  to  sound  the  alarm  to  that  fight  wherein 
virtue  is  to  have  the  victory."* 

Still  it  is  true,  as  D'Aubign6  has  reminded  us, 
that  "the  Keformation  in  England,  perhaps  to  a 
greater  extent  than  that  of  the  Continent,  was 
effected  by  the  word  of  God.  Those  great  individ- 
ualities with  which  we  meet  in  Germany,  in  Swit- 
zerland, in  France — men  like  Luther,  Zwingle,  Cal- 
vin— do  not  appear  in  England.  What  brought 
light  into  the  British  isles  subsequently  to  1517, 
and  more  markedly  after  1526,  was  the  Bible  widely 
circulated.  The  religion  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race, 
a  race  called  more  than  any  other  to  circulate  the 
Scriptures  throughout  the  world,  is  particularly  dis- 
tinguished by  its  biblical  character."t 

This  Keformation  was  no  easy,  gala-day  achieve- 
ment. The  actors  in  it  were  not  masqueraders  in  a 
mimic  war.    It  was  born  of  infinite  hard  fights, 

*  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vol.  1,  p.  51. 

t  D'Aubigne,  Ref.  in  Eng.,  pp.  149,  150. 


f 


THE  TWO  DIVOKCES. 


69 


when  if  "  Michael  and  his  angels  fought  the  dragon, 
the  dragon  fought,  and  his  angels,"  also. 

And  this  triumph  is  all  the  more  remarkable 
when  it  is  remembered  that  it  was  won  against  the 
shrewdest  master-piece  of  human  wisdom.  "  The 
experience  of  twelve  hundred  eventful  years,  the 
ingenuity  and  patient  care  of  forty  generations  of 
statesmen  had  improved  the  Eoman  poHty  to  such 
perfection  that,  among  the  contrivances  which  have 
been  devised  for  deceiving  and  controlling  mankind, 
it  occupies  the  highest  place."* 

It  has  been  well  said,  that  among  the  wants  of 
man  may  be  reckoned  an  appetite  for  deception ;  a 
desire,  inherent  in  our  depraved  nature,  to  bring 
into  an  agreement  the  claims  of  Deity  with  the 
indulgence  of  our  pet  frailties;  a  wild  impatience 
for  the  conveniences  and  splendors  of  a  reHgious 
structure  in  which  the  luxury  of  delusion  may  be 
enjoyed. 

This  Eome  supplied.  Ample  and  complete  in- 
deed was  the  apparatus  which  she  provided  for  the 
accommodation  of  all  the  various  passions  and  pro- 
pensities of  mankind.  She  "had  a  chamber  for 
every  natural  faculty  of  the  soul,  and  an  occupa- 
tion for  every  energy  of  the  natural  spirit.  She 
permitted  ev.ery  extreme  of  abstemiousness  and 
indulgence,  of  fast  and  revelry,  melancholy  ab- 
straction and  burning  zeal,  subtle  acuteness  and 
popular  discourse,  world-renunciation  and  worldly 

*  Macauley,  Essay  on  Ranke's  History  of  the  Popes.    Essays, 
vol.  3. 


70 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


ambition.  She  embraced  tbe  arts,  the  sciences,  the 
stores  of  ancient  learning — adding  antiquity  and 
misrepresentation  of  all  monuments  of  better  times ; 
and  she  covered  carefully,  with  a  venerable  vail, 
that  Bible  which  was  able  to  expose  the  false  min- 
istry of  the  infinite  superstition."* 

The  essence  of  Eomanism  is  deceit  and  prose- 
lytism.  The  Eomanist,  says  Macauley,  is  required 
to  be  "inflexible  in  nothing  but  in  fidelity  to  the 
church.  Their  divines  are  described  by  some  as 
the  most  rigid,  by  others  as  the  most  indulgent  of 
spiritual  directors.  Both  descriptions  were  cor- 
rect. The  devout  listened  with  awe  to  their  high 
and  saintly  morality.  The  gay  cavalier  who  had 
run  his  rival  through  the  body,  the  frail  beauty  who 
had  forgotten  her  marriage  vow,  found  in  the  Ro- 
manist an  easy,  well-bred  man  of  the  world,  who 
knew  how  to  make  allowance  for  the  little  irregu- 
larities of  people  of  fashion.  The  confessor  was 
strict  or  lax  according  to  the  temper  of  the  peni- 
tent. His  first  object  was,  to  drive  no  person  out 
of  the  pale  of  the  church.  Since  there  were  bad 
people,  it  was  better  that  they  should  be  bad  Ro- 
manists than  bad  Protestants.  If  one  were  so 
unfortunate  as  to  be  a  bravo,  a  libertine,  or  a  gam- 
bler, that  was  no  reason  for  making  him  a  heretic 

too."t 

So  subtle  and  flexible  was  the  Roman  rationale. 
It  is  not  possible  to  combat  a  creed  which  accords 


r 


THE  TWO  DIVORCES. 


71 


I 


)* 


so  well  with  the  natural  instincts  of  the  heart  with 
any  mere  human  weapons.  To  say  then  that 
Henry  VIII.  overthrew  the  papacy  in  England,  is 
to  utter  a  self-evident  absurdity.  To  the  accom- 
pHshment  of  that,  nothing  was  adequate  but  "  the 
grace  of  God,  powerful  to  the  pulling  down  of 
strong-holds." 


*  Irving,  Babylon,  etc.,  Foredoomed,  p.  238. 
f  Macauley,  ut  antea. 


72 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


CHAPTEE  Y. 

THE  FLOOD  AND  EBB  TIDES  OF  REFORM. 

The  age  of  Henry  VIII.  was  the  fly-leaf  between 
the  old  and  the  new  dispensations.  The  Reforma- 
tion did  not  reach  its  legal  majority  in  the  reign  of 
the  second  Tudor.  Epochs  are  not  cut  short  by 
dates. 

It  was  a  transition  era.  An  old  faith  was  unset- 
tled ;  a  new  faith  groped  half  bhndly  towards  the 
dawning  light.  Each  pulpit  preached  a  different 
doctrine,  impelled  by  individual  belief  or  by  ca- 
price.* One  chanted  the  mass,  and  proclaimed 
stiff  popery.  Another  asserted  that  "  holy  water 
^^s  juggled  water ;"  held  that  "  auricular  confes- 
sion, absolution,  and  penance  were  neither  neces- 
sary nor  profitable  in  the  church  of  God,"  and 
planted  itself  on  Scripture  alone.f  Babel  seemed 
come  again  ;  all  unity  of  faith  seemed  lost. 

It  was  to  establish  unity  in  the  English  church 
that,  in  1536,  the  king  convened  the  first  reformed 
assembly.^ 

The  convocation  consisted  of  two  houses :  the 
lower,  of  the  clerks  and  proctors,  the  deans  and 
archdeacons  of  the  several  cathedrals  and  dio- 
ceses;  the  upper  of  the  bishops,  with  the  lord- 

*  Neale,  History  of  the  Pm-itans,  vol.  1,  p.  17. 
t  Fuller,  Ch.  History,  vol.  2,  pp.  71,  74.     (List  of  erroneoiw 
opinions.)  |  Neale,  ut  antea. 


EBB  AND  FLOW  OF  REFORM. 


73 


.Ik 


abbots  and  priors,  or  such  of  them  as  rated  as  bar- 
ons in  parliament.^  Lord  Cromwell  presided  in 
state  as  the  king's  vicar-general.t 

The  members  of  this  unique  assembly  were  a 
heterogeneous  mass,  some  Eomanists,  some  Prot- 
estants, some  neither ;  but  all  were  animated  by  a 
servile  wish  to  do  the  royal  bidding. J 

Almost  the  first  thing  they  did  was  to  confirm 
Henry's  divorce  from  Anne  Boleyn,  "  the  papists 
willingly,  the  Protestants  faintly,  but  all  publicly." 
Fuller  informs  us  that  "  no  particular  cause  is  spec- 
ified in  the  sentence,  still  extant  in  the  record ;  and 
though  the  judge  and  the  court  seemed  abundantly 
satisfied  of  the  reasons  for  nullifying  the  marriage, 
yet,  concealing  the  same  unto  themselves,  they 
thought  not  fit  to  communicate  this  treasure  unto 
posterity,  except  they  shut  their  coffers  on  purpose, 
because  there  was  nothing  in  them.  However,  after 
ages  take  the  boldness  to  conceive  that  the  greatest 
guilt  of  Anne  Boleyn  was  king  Henry's  better  fan- 
cying of  another,  which  made  him,  the  next  day  after 
her  execution,  to  mourn  passionately  for  her  in  the 
embraces  of  a  new  and  beautiful  bride,  the  Lady 
Jane  Seymour."§ 

Anne  Boleyn  wore  the  purple  four  years,  not  so 
long  as  it  took  Henry  to  win  her.  In  that  time  she 
gave  birth  to  a  daughter,  who  afterwards  reigned 
as  queen  Elizabeth.!!     Fuller  makes  this  record  of 


o  Fuller,  vol.  1,  p.  67. 

X  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vol.  2,  p.  69. 

II  Hume ;  Lingard  ;  Froude,  etc. 

Piiilt.inii.  4 


t  Ibid. 
§  Ibid.,  pp.  08,  69. 


74 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


EBB  AND  FLOW  OF  REFORM. 


75 


the  unliappy  lady :  "  She  was  a  great  patroness  of 
the  Protestants,  a  protector  of  the  persecuted,  the 
preferrer  of  men  of  merit — among  whom  was  Hugh 
Latimer — and  a  bountiful  reliever  of  the  poor."* 

After  the  consummation  of  this  piece  of  servile 
rascality,  the  convocation  addressed  itself  to  the 
elaboration  of  a  creed.  Then  the  discordant  pas- 
sions of  the  members  crystahzed  them  into  two 
radically  opposed  factions,  one  earnest  to  stand  in 
the  old  ways,  the  other  eager  to  achieve  a  complete 
reformation. 

Latimer  had  opened  the  first  session  with  a  Latin 
sermon  preached  from  this  text :  "  The  children  of 
this  world  are  in  their  generation  wiser  than  the 
children  of  light."  Fuller,  with  quaint  humor, 
thinks  that  it  would  be  cruel  to  quote  these  words 
apropos  of  the  disputants  in  the  convocation.! 

The  debates  were  warm  and  long  continued; 
they  ended,  as  is  the  pernicious  custom  in  such 
cases,  in  a  compromise  on  radical  differences.:t  Oil 
and  water  were  made  to  mix.  Popery  and  Protes- 
tantism kissed  each  other.  So  they  say  the  Bo- 
mans  could  roast  one  half  of  a  boar,  and  boil  the 
other  side.  The  convocation  grew  an  ecclesiastical 
apple,  one  half  pippin,  the  other  half  russet.  They 
gave  birth  to  a  "  twilight  religion,"  whose  essential 
tenets  were  these :  the  Scriptures,  and  the  Apos- 
tles*, the  Nicene,  and  the  Athanasian  creeds — ac- 
cording to  which  the  Bible  was  to  be  interpreted— 

0  FuUer.  p.  68.  *     f  FuUor,  vol.  2,  p.  75. 

{  Ibid.  ;  Neale ;  Newell,  etc. 


I 


\ 


the  recognized  standards  of  faith ;  the  admission  of 
the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith ;  four  of  the 
seven  papal  sacraments  ignored ;  purgatory  left 
doubtful ;  but  auricular  confession,  transubstantia- 
tion,  and  the  use  of  images  and  saints  for  certain 
specified  purposes  stiU  retained.* 

These  articles  gave  very  general  dissatisfaction. 
The  reformers  thought  that  the  cup  was  poisoned 
by  the  popish  ingredients ;  and  the  Protestant 
princes  of  Germany,  some  months  later,  deputed 
three  learned  men  to  reason  with  the  bishops  and 
the  king  of  England  on  behalf  of  a  further  progress 
in  the  reformation  of  the  church.t 

The  Romanists  treated  the  royal  articles  with 
undisguised  contempt.  They  openly ,  scouted  the 
pretensions  of  Henry  to  ecclesiastical  supremacy  \X 
and  the  angered  monarch  had  no  redress  but  to 
slake  his  rage  in  the  blood  of  the  scoffers.  Monks 
of  the  Charter-house  and  of  the  Carthusian  order 
were  executed ;  and  to  crown  the  holocaust,  Fisher 
bishop  of  Rochester,  and  the  ex-lord  chancellor 
Sir  Thomas  More,  were  both  beheaded  within  a 
fortnight  of  each  other.§ 

But  despite  this  severity,  the  emeutes  broadened 

*  Fuller  quotes  the  articles  in  extenso,  as  copied  by  his  own 
hand  from  the  convocation  records,  as  do  also  Burnet  and  Collier. 
Neale  gives  an  abridgment  of  them  ;  so  does  Newell.  The  sum- 
mary given  in  the  text  is  a  faithful  transcript  of  the  spirit  of  the 
articles. 

t  Newell,  History  of  the  Puritans  in  England,  p.  72. 

X  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  17,  18. 

§  Froude,  Hume,  Lingard,  Herbert,  Life  of  Henry  VILL 


76 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


into  rebellion.  One  insurrection  of  twenty  thou- 
sand men  was  choked  by  a  proclamation  ;*  but  an- 
other in  the  north  of  the  island  was  only  suppressed 

by  battle.t 

These  commotions  made  the  unstable  and  un- 
principled monarch  weary  of  pressing  the  Eeforma- 
tion.  Frightened  by  the  war-cloud  in  the  north, 
and  at  heart  still  attached  to  the  essential  tenets 
of  Eome,  he  appointed,  on  the  5th  of  May,  1539,  a 
committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  to  draw  up  new 
articles  of  agreement  in  rehgion.J  The  result  was 
what  Lingard  styles  that  "severe  and  barbarous 
statute"  of  the  Six  Articles.  The  first  of  these 
affirmed  transubstantiation ;  the  second,  commun- 
ion in  one  kind  only ;  the  third,  the  celibacy  of  the 
clergy ;  tlie  fourth,  the  observance  of  celibacy  as 
an  ordinance  of  God ;  the  fifth,  the  continuance  of 
private  masses ;  the  sixth,  auricular  confession.§ 

Sprinkling  with  holy  water,  the  invocation  of 
saints,  images,  and  most  of  the  other  superstitious 
rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  papal  church  were  re- 
tained ;  and  it  was  decreed  that  the  act  should  be 
read  by  the  clergy  once  a  quarter,  while  those  who 
spoke  or  wrote  against  transubstantiation  were  to 
be  burned  without  any  abjuration,  and  to  forfeit 
their  real  and  personal  estates  to  the  crown.    Those 

o  Froude,  Hume,  Lingard,  Herbert,  Life  of  nenry  VIH. 

t  Ibid. 

X  Neale,  Newell,  Burnet,  Fuller. 

§  These  are  cited  in  full  by  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  98 ;  by  Newell, 
pp.  73,  74  ;  by  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  21,  and  by  other  ecclesiastieal 
historians. 


EBB  AND  FLOW  OF  REFORM. 


77 


who  spoke  or  wrote  against  any  of  the  other  arti- 
cles were  to  suffer  imprisonment  during  the  king's 
pleasure,  besides  forfeiting  their  goods  and  chattels 
to  the  state,  for  the  first  offence ;  and  on  the  second, 
they  were  to  suffer  as  feJons.  It  was  also  decreed 
that  those  priests  who  had  married  should  be  con- 
victed of  felony,  unless  they  "put  asunder"  those 
"  whom  God  had  joined ;"  and  it  was  made  penal 
for  any  conscientious  soul  to  absent  himself  from 
the  confessional.^ 

Henry  YIII.  surrendered  to  Rome.  England 
struck  her  flag  to  the  Yatican.  Romanism  shrieked 
with  frenzied  joy  when  Parliament  "framed  this 
mischief  by  a  law." 

"Power  and  profit,"  says  Fuller,  "  are  the  things 
which  politic  princes  chiefly  desire.  King  Henry 
had  already  obtained  both  by  his  partial  reforma- 
tion :  power,  by  abolishing  the  pope's  usurpation  in 
his  dominion;  proflt,  by  seizing  on  the  lands  and 
goods  of  suppressed  monasteries.  And  thus  hav- 
ing served  his  own  turn,  his  zeal  wilfully  tired  to  go 
any  further ;  and  only  abolishing  such  popery  as 
was  necessary  to  his  design,  he  severely  urged  the 
rest  on  the  practice  of  his  subjects. 

"  Herein  he  appeared  like  to  Jehu  king  of  Is- 
rael, who  utterly  rooted  out  the  foreign  idolatry  of 
Baal — fetched  from  the  Zidonians,  and  almost  ap- 
propriated to  the  family  of  Ahab — but  still  worship- 
ped the  calves  in  Dan  and  Bethel,  the  state  idola- 
try of  the  kingdom  ;  so  our  Henry,  though  banish- 

o  Burnet,  Hist.  Rof.,  part  1,  pp.  258,  259. 


78 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


i»g  aU  outlandish  superstition  of  papal  dependence, 
still  reserved  and  maintained  home-bred  poperj, 
prosecuting  the  refusers  to  submit  thereto."* 

Against  the  Six  Articles  Cranmer  and  Cromwell 
in  vain  protested  ;t  and  they  were  ere  long  sealed  in 
the  martyred  blood  of  Lambert,  a  learned  and  ami- 
able divine  who  had  achieved  wide  fame  as  minister 
to  the  English  congregation  at  Antwerp,  but  who, 
on  returning  to  Britain,  had  ventured  to  tilt  against 
transubstantiation.:|: 

Before  Lambert's  auto  da  fe  the  Reformation 
halted.  Reformatory  movements  do  not  go  back- 
wards, but  they  oscillate.  So  now  in  England  re- 
ligious progress  fluctuated.  Henry  VIII.  had  done 
his  work;  liberty  waited  for  his  death  to  leave 
room  for  the  fresh  young  truth  to  grow. 

In  the  mean  time  the  king  sternly  enforced  the 
law.  Even  Cranmer,  his  chief  favorite,  was  com- 
pelled to  send  away  his  wife;  while  Latimer  and 
Haxton  not  only  resigned  their  respective  sees  of 
Worcester  and  Salisbury,  but  were  both  impris- 
oned for  inveighing  against  the  statute.§  The  pa- 
tient and  thoughtful  pen  of  old  John  Fox  has  pre- 
served the  names  of  many  of  the  untitled  victims  of 
the  king's  "  home-bred  popery."|| 

England  had  simply  exchanged  popes.  "Hen- 
ry YIII.  was  as  much  the  pontiff  of  Britain  as 

*  Fuller,  Church  History,  vol.  2,  pp.  97,  98. 

t  Ibid.  ;  Newel  ;  Neale,  etc.  %  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  20. 

§  Newell,  p.  75. 

II  See  his  account  of  the  sufferings  of  Testwood,  Filmer,  Ann© 
Askew,  etc. 


EBB  AND  FLOW  OF  KEFOEM. 


79 


Paul  ly.  was  of  Eome;  and  popery,  under  an- 
other head,  still  triumphed  in  its  most  obnoxious 
forms."* 

In  1540  the  fall  of  Cromwell  occurred.!  The 
astute  statesman  had  provoked  the  ill-will  of  the 
shuttlecock  king  by  the  active  share  which  he  had 
taken  in  the  promotion  of  the  royal  marriage  with 
Anne  of  Cleves,  a  match  which  proved  eminently 
unhappy. 

Then  Henry  fell  a  complete  victim  to  "  the  arti- 
fice and  abject  submission  of  Gardiner,  Bonner, 
and  other  conforming  popish  bishops,  who,  by 
flattering  his  imperious  temper  and  complying  with 
his  dictates,  prejudiced  him  against  the  reformers 
added  to  which,  his  majesty's  growing  infirmities 
made  him  so  peevish  and  positive,  that  it  was  dax- 


o  Brook,  Mem.  o/ Cartwright,  Introduction,  p.  4. 

t  Froude,  vol.  3,  p.  303 ;  Burnet ;  Fuller,  vol.  2,  pp.  98-105. 

**  There  were  eight  charges  in  the  bill  of  attainder  against 
Cromwell,  four  of  which  related  to  his  heretical  character.  This 
reveals  the  true  ground  of  the  enmity  against  him.  He  had  risen 
by  the  force  of  his  genius  and  capacity  for  business,  from  a  very 
humble  origin,  to  be  the  most  powerful  and  influential  subject  in 
the  kingdom.  For  this  he  was  hated  by  the  old  nobility.  But 
Cromwell's  hatred  of  popery  was  undoubtedly  his  great  offence. 
A  forged  confession  and  recantation  was  published  after  his 
death,  as  was  done  in  the  case  of  that  gallant  old  Lollard,  Lord 
Cobham,  who  was  hanged  and  burned  for  his  Protestantism  a 
century  and  a  quarter  before  Cromwell's  death.  The  dying 
prayer  of  the  great  statesman  contradicts  the  calumny  that  he 
recanted  his  faith  in  his  last  hours  :  *  Lord  Jesus,  merciful  Lord, 
Christ  Jesus,  I  see  and  acknowledge  that  there  is  in  myself  no 
hope  of  salvation  ;  but  all  my  confidence,  hope,  and  trust  is  on 
thy  most  merciful  goodness.'"  Punchard,  vol.  2,  pp.  137,  138, 
note. 


z-' 


80 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


gerous  to  advise  any  thing  not  known  to  be  agree- 
able to  bis  sovereign  will  and  pleasure."* 

The  fag-end  of  Henry's  arbitrary,  wayward,  and 
contradictory  career  did  not  "bring  forth  works 
meet  for  repentance."  Wrenched  by  disease,  grum- 
bling, and  persecuting  papists  and  Protestants 
alike,  he  hobbled  to  his  grave,  dying  on  the  28th 
of  January,  1546.  History  ranks  him  "  among  the 
ill-princes,  but  not  among  the  worst;"  while  it 
writes  upon  his  tomb  this  acknowledgment,  that 
God  builded  with  him  better  than  he  knew. 

•  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  20. 


11 


.   1 


1 


TUE  PROTESTANT  INQUISITION.       81 


CHAPTEE  VI. 


I 


THE  PROTESTANT  INQUISITION. 

"  The  king  is  dead ;  long  Hve  the  kmg !"  so  runs 
the  formula  of  the  old  English  law  which  proclaims 
with  epigrammatic  point  the  immortaHty  of  roy- 
alty. That  last  sad  pageant  of  Henry's  rule,  his 
burial,  was  scarce  concluded,  ere  his  son  and  heir 
by  poor  Jane  Seymour,  Edward  YI.,  stepped  bhthely 
into  the  vacant  throne. 

This  boy— he  was  but  ten  years  old  when  he 
began  to  reign— is  the  sphynx  of  Enghsh  kings. 
Deeply  learned,  well  versed  in  pohtics,  precise  in 
business,  a  shrewd  observer,  a  careful  critic,  and 
yet  a  baby  of  ten,  is  it  strange  that  posterity  should 
wonder  and  laugh  incredulously  when  it  looks  back 
across  three  hundred  years  and  sees  this  royal  prod- 


igy 


9* 


•  Edward  VI.  was  bom  October  12,  1537.    He  was  proclaimed 
king  January  31,  1547.     Most  Protestant  historians  dweU  with 
reverent  admiration  upon  his  learning,  piety,  and  talents ;  as,  for 
instance,  Burnet,  FuUer,  Neale.     His  teachers,  says  Strype,  were 
♦'happily  chosen,  being  both  truly  learned,  sober,  wise,  and  all 
favorers  of  the  gospel."    Cranmer,  his  god-father,  superintended 
his  studies.     John  Belonair  taught  him  French.     Dr.  R.  Cox,  "a 
very  reverend  divine,"  instructed  him  in  Christian  manners.     In 
Greek  and  Latin  he  was  taught  by  "that  accomplished  scholar, 
Sir  John  Cheke,  once  public  reader  of  Greek  in  Cambridge.  .... 
Other  masters  attended  him  for  other  tongues,  but  Cheke  did  most 
constantly  reside  with  him."    Strype,  Eccl.  Memorials,  voL  2,  pp. 

4* 


82 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PUBITAN8. 


Ii.  I 


Henry  YIII.  left  specific  directions  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  his  kingdom  during  his  son's  minority  ;* 
but  these  were  only  partially  complied  with.  The 
burly  Tudor  could  not  dictate  so  imperiously  from 
the  grave  as  he  had  been  wont  to  do  from  the 
throne. 

The  sixteen  executors  to  whom  the  government 
had  been  bequeathed  appointed  one  of  their  num- 
ber, the  duke  of  Somerset,  Protector,  under  cer- 
tain restrictions ;  and  it  became  his  duty  to  act  m 
loco  regis  until  Edward  should  attain  his  legal  ma- 
jority.t 

The  administrators  were  composed  in  part  of 
papists,  in  part  of  Protestants ;  but  the  reformers 
had  the  ascendency,  and  they  immediately  pro- 
ceeded to  initiate  religious  changes. 

Cranmer  became  the  leader  of  the  Keformation.f 
The  statute  of  the  Six  Articles  was  reversed.  Many 
who  had  been  forced  by  it  to  fly  beyond  the  sea 
were  summoned  home ;  while  others  of  its  victims — 
Hooper,  Coverdale,  Kogers — were  preferred  to  ben- 
efices in  the  church.§  Before  the  "  open  sesame  " 
of  the  new  regime,  even  the  jail  doors  turned  on 

13, 16.  Mr.  Hiillam  remai-ks,  ••  I  can  hardly  avoid  doubting  wheth- 
er Edward  VL's  journal,  published  in  the  second  volume  of  Bur- 
net, is  altogether  his  own  ;  because  it  is  strange  that  a  boy  of  ten 
years  should  write  with  the  precise  brevity  of  a  man  of  business. 
Yet  it  is  hard  to  say  how  far  an  intercourse  with  able  men  on 
serious  subjects  may  force  a  plant  of  such  natural  vigor.  ...  He 
treated  his  sister  Mary  harshly  about  her  religion,  and  had,  I  sus- 
pect, too  much  Tudor  blood  in  his  veins."    Con.  Hist,  p.  91. 

•  Burnet,  vol.  2.    Fuller,  vol.  2.    Newell,  Hume,  Froude. 

t  Ibid.  X  StoweU,  p.  80.  §  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  27. 


I 


THE  PROTESTANT  INQUISITION.      83 

their  rusty  hinges ;  and  Latimer,  who  had  passed 
six  weary  years  in  the  Tower,  regained  his  lost  caste 
and  his  unshackled  lips.*^ 

The  council  went  still  further :  it  invited  learn-= 
ed  foreign  reformers  to  make  England  their  home.t 
Several  responded,  among  whom  were  the  famous 
Peter  Martyr  and  Martin  Bucer.f  The  first  of  these 
was  seated  in  the  chair  of  divinity  at  Oxford;  the 
other  was  preferred  to  a  professorship  at  Cam- 
bridge.§ 

The  government  then  proceeded  to  remould  the 
loose  and  clumsy  ecclesiastical  system  of  Henry 
VIII.  It  was  no  part  of  the  programme  to  intro- 
duce a  radical  reformation.  The  design  was  rather, 
as  Burnet  informs  us,  "  to  carry  on  the  Keformation 
by  slow  and  safe  degrees ;  not  hazarding  too  much 
at  once  ;"||  or,  as  Fuller  puts  it  in  his  figurative 
style,  they  intended  to  imitate  "careful  mothers 
and  nurses  who,  on  condition  they  can  get  their 
children  to  part  with  knives,  are  content  to  let 
them  play  with  rattles."! 

Instigated  by  Cranmer,  the  regents  decreed  a 
royal  visitation,  the  object  of  which  was  to  instruct 
the  commons  in  the  tenets  of  the  Reformation.** 
This  circuit  was  made  by  "  six  of  the  gravest  divines 
and  most  popular  preachers"  in  England. tt    Cran- 

♦  Punchard,  vol.  2,  pp.  155,  156.     Wilkins,  Concilia,  3. 
f  Burnet,  vol.  3,  p.  146. 

X  Punchard,  ut  antea.  §  Ibid. 

II  Burnet,  Hist.  Ref.,  Reign  of  Ed.  VI.     See  the  general  spirit, 
passim.  IT  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  vol.  4,  book  8,  sect.  3. 

»♦  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  27.  .         tt  Ibid. 


84 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUBITANS. 


mer  prepared  twelve  homilies  for  the  enlightenment 
of  groping  souls ;  and  these  the  government  direct- 
ed "  all  parsons,  vicars,  or  curates"  to  read  "  every 
Sunday"  in  their  respective  churches,*  to  supply 
the  absence  of  sermons,  which  the  majority  of  the 
clergy,  accustomed  only  to  mumble  the  Eoman  for- 
mulas, were  unable  to  compose.t 

Conformity  with  this  act  was  enjoined  by  pains 
and  penalties.^  Most  of  the  bishops  at  once  suc- 
cumbed ;  but  two  of  the  stiffest  of  the  Koman  clergy, 
Gardiner  and  Bonner,  refused  to  submit,  and  they 
were  flung  into  the  Fleet  prison  for  contempt.§ 

But  the  visitation  was  a  mere  make-shift,  intend- 
ed to  tide  over  a  shallow  spot.  Notwithstanding 
the  attempts  at  coerced  unity  made  by  Henry  YIII., 
pulpit  continued  to  clash  against  pulpit ;  nor  were 
the  laity  less  radically  divided  than  the  clergy.ll 
The  regents  were  anxious  to  melt  these  saHent  dif- 
ferences, which  constantly  threatened  to  inaugurate 
civil  war,  into  a  grand  unity,  "  a  consummation  de- 
voutly to  be  wished,"  but  not  sufficiently  imperative 
to  be  entitled  to  dragoon  every  other  desideratum 
into  obedience. 

The  golden  rule  of  toleration  did  not  belong  to 
what  the  Scotch  call  the  "humanities"  of  that  age 
of  nascent  Protestantism.  This  now  well-recognized 
civil  canon  the  twilight  government  of  ^Edward  VI. 
did  not  accept.    The  light  still  winked  from  the 

o  Bnmet,  vol.  2,  p.  54.  t  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  28. 

t  Ibid.  §  Collkr ;  Strype ;  Hallam,  Con.  Hiat.  ' 

II  Neale,  p.  30. 


h 


f 


THE  PROTESTANT  INQUISITION.      85 

monastery  windows ;  and  if,  groping  in  the  era  of 
tapers,  Cranmer  and  his  confreres  often  stumbled 
and  fell,  perhaps  they  are  more  deserving  of  pity 
than  of  too  harsh  censure. 

In  the  first  year  of  Edward's  reign,  a  plan  for 
the  security  of  religious  unity  was  digested  ;*  and 
this  was  afterwards  submitted  to  the  Parliament 
for  ratification.  Parliament,  anxious  only  to  know 
and  to  execute  the  will  of  the  court,  readily  enacted 
Cranmer's  programme  into  law. 

At  one  period  in  English  history,  Parliament 
stooped  to  be  simply  the  attorney  of  the  king.  It 
w^as  a  clumsy  scribe,  esteeming  its  only  function  to 
be  to  record  the  will  of  despots.  It  would  as  soon 
have  thought  of  decreeing  the  jury  trial  in  Timbuc- 
too  as  of  uttering  an  independent  word,  initiating  a 
policy,  or  crying  veto  to  the  usurpations  of  a  king. 
In  a  later  age.  Parliament  took  a  juster  view  of  its 
prerogatives,  better  understood  its  august  functions, 
and  stereotyped  brave  words  into  grand  acts. 

Still  the  Parliament  just  mentioned  proved  to 
be  one  of  the  most  memorable  in  history;  and  it 
deserves  to  be  called  the  iconoclastic  Farliamerd ; 
for  it  broke  many  idols.  It  struck  down  many  of 
the  oppressive  statutes  of  the  past;  repealed  the 
cruel  enactments  of  Henry  YIII. ;  decreed  the  re- 
moval of  statues,  crosses,  and  altars  from  the  church- 
es, the  disuse  of  tapers,  holy  water,  and  incense; 
ordered  the  aboHtion  of  the  worship  paid  the  Vir- 
gin and  the  saints ;  left  the  doctrine  of  purgatory 

*  Burnet,  Records,  vol.  2,  part  2,  book  1,  No.  7. 


86 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


indifferent,  tliougli  retaining  the  prayer  for  depart- 
ed souls ;  decreed  the  discontinuance  of  auricular 
confession,  the  denial  of  the  corporeal  presence,  the 
restoration  of  the  right  of  marriage  to  the  clergy ; 
and  to  crown  all,  instituted  a  uniform  order  of 
prayer,  and  established  the  reformed  liturgy* 

This  was  a  glorious  work,  and  jubilant  Protes- 
tantism of  all  shades  echoes  the  "well-done"  of 
that  age  by  the  "  Amen  "  of  three  centuries. 

"  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the  Church 
of  England"  was  not  original  with  the  committee 
of  bishops  and  divines  who  prepared  it.  It  was 
compiled  from  various  local  missals,  the  obnox- 
ious popish  features  being  omitted.t  It  was  first 
published  in  1548 ;  but  it  was  altered  three  years 
later,  at  the  suggestion  of  dissenting  foreign  divines 
and  their  English  adherents ;  when,  in  its  amended 
form,  it  received  the  sanction  of  the  Protestant  Con- 

vocation.J 

The  Liturgy,  Hke  the  Prayer-book,  was  a  form  of 
public  worship  drawn  largely  from  Komish  sources 
and  protestantized.  It  was  intended  to  produce 
exact  uniformity  of  doctrine ;  but  became,  from  its 
rigidity — no  discriminating  latitude  being  left  for 
tender  consciences — the  rock  upon  which  the  re- 
formers spHt.§ 

With  the  salient  features  of  the  Liturgy,  revised 

•  Statutes  of  the  Kealm,  1  Edward  VI.,  chap.  2.  Statutes  2 
and  3  Edward  VI. ,  chap.  1.  Pari.  Hist ,  vol.  3,  pp.  232,  235.  Bur- 
net,  vol.  2,  p.  192. 

t  Burnet,  voL  2,  p.  192.    Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  31. 

X  Newell,  p.  82.  §  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  32. 


THE  PKOTESTANT  INQUISITION.       87 


■» 


and  changed  from  time  to  time,  we  shall  become 
acquainted  as  this  history  proceeds. 

The  acceptance  and  use  of  the  new  service-book- 
was  enforced  by  harsh  legislation.  It  was  not  only 
enacted  that  the  clergy  should  make  use  of  this, 
and  of  no  other,  but  that  if  any  parson,  vicar,  or 
spiritual  person  should  speak  in  derogation  of  it, 
he  should  for  the  first  offence  forfeit  a  year's  prof- 
its of  one  of  his  preferments,  and  suffer  six  months' 
imprisonment ;  for  the  second,  lose  all  his  prefer- 
ments, and  suffer  twelve  months'  imprisonment; 
and  for  the  third,  suffer  imprisonment  for  life.* 

Substantially  the  same  penalties  awaited  the  lay- 
man who  should  ridicule  the  new  form  of  worship, 
menace  the  clergy  for  adhering  to  it,  or  prevail  on 
them  to  use  any  other.t 

These  enactments  established  that  saddest,  most 
illogical  of  farces,  a  Protestant  Inquisition.  It  was 
the  gospel  turning  persecutor.  Eeligion  attempted 
the  role  of  Simon  de  Montfort. 

To  hoot  such  absurd  legislation  is  not  necessa- 
rily to  reject  the  Liturgy.  It  would  not  be  proper 
to  force  the  Bible  itself  into  unwilling  hands  by 
statute.  The  attempt  to  do  this  in  England,  in  a 
certain  sense  wrecked  the  Liturgy  before  it  was 
fairly  launched.  Nothing  prejudices  like  compul- 
sion. Thumb-screws  and  stocks  are  the  most  mis- 
erable of  proselyters.  This  the  history  of  the  In- 
quisition proves.    The  most  persuasive  of  preach- 

o  statutes  of  the  Realm,  vol.  4,  pp.  37,  38. 
t  Statutes,  ut  antea. 


i 


88 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


ers  is  liberty— tlie  ability  to  accept  or  reject,  as 
reason  dictates.  This  the  history  of  the  nineteenth 
century  demonstrates. 

A  reign  of  terror  was  now  inaugurated.  All  who 
ventured  to  dissent  from  the  governmental  ortho- 
doxy were  proscribed,  outlawed,  or  burned.*  Con- 
scientious men  were  transmuted  into  hypocrites  by 
forced  abjurations ;  or  else,  if  they  persisted  in  their 
creed,  they  were  executed  as  contumacious  heretics. 

Among  the  victims  of  this  unhappy  persecution 
history  has  preserved  the  name  of  poor  Joan  of 
Kent,  a  maid  who  "  maintained  that  Christ  was  not 
incarnate  of  the  Yirgin  Mary,  whose  flesh  being 
sinful,  he  could  not  partake  of  it ;  but  the  Word, 
by  the  consent  of  the  inward  man  in  the  Virgin, 
took  flesh  of  her."  These  were  her  words ;  a  scho- 
lastic subtlety  not  capable  of  doing  much  mischief, ' 
and  far  from  deserving  so  severe  a  punishment.f 

Cranmer  himself,  the  chief  instigator  of  Joan's 
martyrdom,J  had  been  by  turns  a  papist,  a  Luther- 
an, and  a  Sacramentarian.  In  every  change  he 
was  guilty  of  inexcusable  severities.  His  own  va- 
riations should  have  taught  him  to  be  more  tender 
of  the  lives  of  those  who  rejected  the  governmental 
dictum.^ 

<*  Burnet,  Fuller,  Newell,  Neale,  etc. 

* 

t  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  36. 

J  Edward  was  disposed  to  pardon  Joan,  but  * '  Cranmer  at  length 
overruled  his  objections.  The  king,  as  he  put  his  name  to  the 
warrant,  wept,  and  said  to  the  archbishop,  *  If  I  do  wrong,  it  is  in 
submission  to  your  authority ;  you  shall  answer  God  first' "  Bur- 
net, vol.  2,  p.  112.  §  Neale,  voL  1,  p.  35. 


I  '<f 


THE  PROTESTANT  INQUISITION.       89 

"His  actions,"  says  Burnet,  "were  much  cen-^ 
sured,  as  being  contrary  to  the  clemency  of  the  gos- 
pel ;  and  they  were  used  by  papists,  who  said  that 
it  was  plain  that  the  reformers  were  only  against 
burning  when  they  were  in  fear  of  it  themselves."* 

When  the  woful  persecutions  of  the  Marian  era 
are  pilloried  in  history,  ought  the  example  of  king 
Edward's  reformatory  regime  to  be  forgotten  ?  The 
princess  Mary  herself  would  have  been  punished 
for  non-conformity,  had  it  not  been  for  the  active 
interference  of  Charles  V.t  Tumults  everywhere  oc- 
curred. Insurrection  raised  its  hydra-head.  "  The 
new  Liturgy  did  not  sit  well  on  the  minds  of  the 
country  people,  who  were  for  going  on  in  their  old 
way  of  wakes,  processions,  and  church  ales."t 

"  Come  we  now,"  in  the  words  of  Fuller,  "  to  the 
saddest  difference  that  ever  happened  in  the  church 
of  England,  if  we  consider  either  the  time,  how  long 
it  lasted,  the  eminent  persons  therein  engaged,  or 
the  doleful  effects  thereby  produced.  For  now  non- 
conformity in  the  days  of  king  Edward  was  con- 
ceived ;  which  afterwards,  in  the  reign  of  queen 
Mary— but  beyond  sea,  at  Frankfort— was  born; 
which  in  the  reign  of  queen  Elizabeth  was  nursed 
and  weaned  ;  which,  under  king  James,  grew  up  a 
tall  stripling ;  but  towards  the  end  of  king  Charles' 
reign,  shot  up  to  the  full  strength  and  stature  of  a 
man,  able  not  only  to  cope  with,  but  to  conquer  the 
hierarchy,  its  adversary."§ 


4- 


©  Hist.  Ref.,  vol.  2. 
I  Neale,  p.  34. 


t  Newell,  p.  83. 
§  Fuller,  Ch.  ffist.,  vol.  2,  p.  329. 


90 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


^ 


CHAPTEK  YII. 

CHURCH  AND  STATE. 

The  reign  of  Edward  VI.  is  memorable  because 
in  it  was  cemented  the  union  between  church  and 
state.  "  The  Keformation  was  begun,"  says  Bur- 
net, "  and  carried  on,  not  by  the  major  part  of  the 
bishops  and  clergy,  but  by  a  few  selected  bishops 
and  divines,  who,  being  supported  by  the  king's 
AUTHORITY,*  did  frame  things  as  they  pleased,  and 
by  their  interest  at  court  got  them  to  be  enacted  in 
Parliament ;  and  after  they  had  removed  such  bish- 
ops as  opposed  them,  then  they  procured  the  con- 
vocation to  submit  to  what  was  done."t 

It  was  in  that  age  the  almost  universal  belief 
that  government  could  as  properly  dictate  in  the 
realm  of  ethics  as  in  civil  affairs.  Precedents  were 
found  in  the  Jewish  state  and  in  the  Koman  em- 
pire.   When  the  clergy  of  Edward's  day  opened 


*  Strype  says,  "The  papists  cried  out  against  Edward's  do- 
ings, as  being  done  in  his  minority,  and  done  by  others,  the  chief 
men  about  him.  They  would  ordinarily  say,  ♦  Tush,  this  year  will 
not  tarry  ;  't  is  but  my  lord  Protector's  and  my  lord  of  Canterbury's 
doings.  The  king  is  but  a  child,  and  he  knows  not  of  it.'  To 
which  Latimer  would  respond,  '  I  will  tell  you  this,  his  majesty 
hath  more  godly  wit  and  understanding,  more  learning  and  know- 
ledge at  his  age,  than  twenty  of  his  progenitors  that  I  could  name 
had  at  any  time  of  their  life.'  "    Eccl.  Memorials,  vol.  2,  p.  38. 

f  Burnet,  voL  2,  Preface,  p.  11. 


CHUBCH  AND  STATE. 


91 


I 
1 


1 


the  code  of  Justinian,  they  saw  that  the  first  law 
made  by  Theodosius,  when  he  came  to  the  empire, 
was,  that  all  should  everywhere,  under  severe  pains, 
adhere  to  that  faith  which  was  received  by  Dama- 
sus  bishop  of  Rome,  and  by  Peter  of  Alexandria.* 

Why  then,  queried  they,  may  not  the  king  give 
the  hke  authority  to  the  archbishops  of  Canterbury 
and  York  ?  They  did  not  doubt  the  right ;  it  did 
not  even  enter  into  their  minds  to  divorce  church 
and  state.  The  ecclesiastical  discipline  of  Europe 
at  large  was  settled  on  that  basis.  Rome  had  al- 
ways meddled  with  statecraft.  The  bishops  who 
inaugurated  the  English  Reformation  thought  that, 
in  this,  Protestantism  should  enact  the  role  of  Rome. 
So  deep-rooted  was  this  behef,  that  even  a  century 
later  the  stern  ploughshare  of  civil  war  could  not 
eradicate  it.  It  was  left  for  a  brighter  epoch  and 
another  country  to  explode  the  fallacy  of  "  church 
and  state." 

In  the  church  of  England,  Christ's  vicar  was  the 
king.  Under  the  Reformation  the  ancient  ecclesi- 
astical equipments  were  largely  retained.  The 
respective  dioceses  wxre  still  coextensive  with  the 
kingdom.t  Cathedrals  which  had  formerly  echoed 
to  the  chanting  of  the  mass,  now  resounded  with 
the  purer  worship  of  the  service-book;  and  the 
national  church,  like  the  papal  church,  continued 
to  be  supported  by  tithes  gathered  from  the  Chan- 
nel to  the  Tweed,  t 

•  Justinian's  Code  ;  cited  by  Burnet,  vol.  2,  Preface,  p.  11. 
f  Fuller  ;  Burnet ;  Strype ;  Hallam,  etc.  %  Ibid. 


—liiiiwiiiiiir-  i'liiiiirini 


92 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


While  the  Keformation  retained,  in  some  meas- 
ure, the  paraphernalia  of  Rome,  it  parted  with  the 
essence  of  papacy.  Up  to  the  reign  of  Edward  VI., 
"  the  public  services  of  the  church  had  been,  for  the 
most  part,  said  and  sung  in  a  language  unintelligi- 
ble to  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  the  people.  Even 
the  Lord's  prayer  the  poor  suppliants  had  been 
compelled,  until  recently,  to  mumble  over  in  Latin, 
not  knowing  the  meaning  of  one  petition  which  they 
uttered ;  and  very  many  of  the  priests  who  offici- 
ated at  the  altars  knew  scarcely  more  of  what  they 
said  or  sung  than  the  poor  people  whom  they  de- 
luded with  their  ostentatious  ceremonies. 

"  To  gather  together  the  mass-books  and  prim- 
ers, cull  from  them  the  best  bits,  translate  these 
into  Enghsh,  and  so  place  in  the  hands  of  the  peo- 
ple a  book  of  prayer,  administration  of  the  sacra- 
ments, and  other  rites  and  ceremonies,  which  they 
could  read  and  understand,  and  by  means  of  which 
they  could  inteUigently  engage  in  acts  of  public 
worship — to  do  all  these  things  was  indeed  a  great 
and  most  praiseworthy  work.  It  was  to  take  a  long 
and  bold  step  towards  reformation.  And  could  the 
reformers  have  appreciated  the  true  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity sufficiently  to  have  left  this  reformed  and 
intelligible  service  to  find  friends  and  to  make  its 
way  in  the  world  without  enforcement  by  penal 
enactments,  it  would  have  saved  their  memory  and 
the  church  of  England  from  many  stains,  which  no 
human  hands  can  now  fully  remove. 

"  The  fatal  error  of  the  church-and-state  reform- 


\ 
^ 


S 


CHURCH  AND  STATE. 


93 


ers  was  the  delusive  idea  of  enforcing  absolute  uni- 
formrty.  The  very  title  of  the  act  which  established 
the  new  service-book  was,  *  An  Acte  for  Uniform- 
ity of  Service  and  Administration  throughout  the 
Realme.'  The  attempt  to  compel  unvarying  uni- 
formity, the  refusal  to  gi'ant  any  liberty  to  worship 
God  otherwise  than  as  the  law  prescribed — this 
was  the  great  error  of  the  reformers.  In  this  mat- 
ter of  exact  uniformity,  the  reformers  even  outran 
the  very  papists ;  for,  previous  to  the  passage  of  this 
act,  there  was  no  absolute  uniformity  in  the  Eng- 
lish church,  but  a  variety  of  forms  of  prayer  and 
communion  w^ere  tolerated,  differing  in  different 
sections  of  the  country.  As  the  pope  permitted 
this  latitude,  so  Henry  YIII.  seems  to  have  allowed 
the  churches  to  disregard  all  the  popish  forms  and 
prayers,  and  to  use  such  others,  even  in  English, 
as  they  preferred.  So  at  least  we  infer  from  what 
Strype  says  when  speaking  of  the  variety  which 
existed  in  England  before  the  act  of  uniformity, 
that '  those  who  liked  not  any  of  these  popish  forms 
and  Latin  prayers,  used  other  English  forms,  ac- 
cording as  their  fancies  led  them.'  "* 

The  obstinate  persistence  of  the  government  in 
enforcing  uniformity  even  in  non-essential  points 
provoked,  in  the  years  1550  and  1551,  the  initial 
controversy  from  which  grew  "many  and  tall 
branches  of  mischief." 

Among  other  things,  it  had  been  decided  to 
retain  the  old  habits  which  had  been  worn  by  the 

o  Punchard,  vol.  2,  pp.  179-181. 


94 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


Roman  clergy  in  the  service  of  the  altar.  These 
vestments  were  disliked  by  some  of  the  reformers 
as  the  badges  of  the  old  serfdom  to  Eome;  by 
others  they  were  esteemed  lightly,  because  in  the 
minds  of  the  papists  they  symbolized  Latin  ortho- 
doxy.* 

To  this  very  general  feehng  John  Hooper,  a 
divine  who  was  pronounced  by  king  Edward  to  be 
"of  great  knowledge  and  deep  judgment  both  in 
the  Scriptures  and  in  profane  learning,  as  also  a 
person  of  ready  utterance  and  of  an  honest  life,"t 
was  the  first  to  give  public  voice. 

Hooper  had  quitted  England  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  reign  of  Henry  YIII.  "  He  was  residing  at 
Zurich  at  the  time  when  all  Germany  was  in  a  flame 
on  account  of  the  Interim,  which  was  a  form  of 
worship  contrived  to  keep  up  the  exterior  face  of 
popery.  Upon  this  there  arose  an  important  ques- 
tion among  the  Germans  concerning  the  use  of  in- 
dijfferent  or  non-essential  things.  It  was  said,  if 
tilings  were  indifferent  in  themselves,  they  were 
lawful ;  and  that  it  was  the  subject's  part  to  obey 
when  commanded.  So  the  old  popish  rites  were 
retained  on  purpose  to  draw  the  people  more  easily 
back  to  Romanism. 

"  Out  of  this  another  question  arose :  whether 
it  was  lawful  to  obey  in  things  indifferent,  when  it 
was  certain  that  they  had  a  bad  tendency,  and  were 
enjoined  with  an  ill  design.     To  which  it  was  re- 

•  Strype,  Burnet,  Fuller. 

t  Edward's  Letter  to  Archbishop  Cranmer. 


CHUECH  AND  STATE. 


95 


I 


plied,  that  the  designs  of  legislators  were  not  to  be 
inquired  into. 

"  This  created  a  vast  distraction  in  the  country. 
Some  conformed  to  the  Interim ;  but  the  major  part 
were  firm  in  their  principles,  and  were  turned  out 
of  their  livings  for  disobedience.  The  reformed 
were  for  shaking  off  the  relics  of  popery,  at  the 
hazard  of  all  that  was  dear  to  them  in  this  world. 
This  was  especially  the  feeling  at  Zurich,  where 
Hooper  was ;  all  were  zealous  against  any  compli- 
ance with  the  use  of  the  old  rites. 

"  With  these  principles,  and  fresh  from  the  heat 
of  that  controversy.  Hooper  came  over  to  Eng- 
land, and  applied  himself  to  preaching  and  explain- 
ing the  Scriptures  to  the  people.  He  was  in  the 
pulpit  almost  every  day  in  the  week,  and  his  ser- 
mons were  so  popular  that  all  the  churches  in 
which  he  preached  were  crowded.  His  fame  soon 
reached  the  court,  and  with  Dr.  Poguet  he  was 
appointed  to  deliver  all  the  Lent  sermons.  In 
May,  1550,  Hooper  was  appointed  bishop  of  Glou- 
cester ;  but  he  declined  because  of  the  form  of  the 
oath  of  supremacy,  and  the  vestments.  The  oath, 
"  By  God,  by  the  saints,  and  by  the  Holy  Ghost," 
Hooper  thought  impious,  since  God  only  ought  to 
be  appealed  to  in  an  oath.  The  young  king,  con- 
vinced that  this  objection  was  just,  struck  out  the 
obnoxious  words  with  his  own  pen.  However,  the 
scruple  about  the  vestments  was  not  so  easily  got- 
ten over.  The  king  and  council  were  disposed  to 
dispense  with  them ;  but  Ridley  and  the  rest  of  the 


I 


96 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


bishops,  who  had  worn  them,  were  of  another  mind, 
saying  the  thing  was  indifferent,  and  therefore  the 
law  ought  to  be  obeyed."* 

Hooper's  objections  were  substantially  these : 
that  the  vestments  and  ornaments — the  rochet, 
chimere,  square  cap,  and  the  rest — were  mere  hu- 
man inventions,  having  no  countenance  in  Scrip- 
ture, but  brought  into  the  church  when  in  its  most 
corrupt  state,  by  tradition  or  custom;  that  they 
were  not  suitable  to  the  simplicity  of  the  Christian 
religion,  and  were  condemned  by  the  apostle  as 
"  beggarly  elements ;"  and  especially  that  they  had 
been  invented  chiefly  to  give  effect  to  the  pompous 
and  idolatrous  celebration  of  the  mass,  and  were 
so  consecrated  in  the  minds  of  the  ignorant  that 
they  were  considered  essential  to  the  due  celebra- 
tion of  rehgious  service.  He  affirmed  his  willing- 
ness to  wear  a  decent,  simple  attire,  different  from 
the  ordinary  dress  of  a  layman;  but  he  was  not 
willing  to  sanction  the  superstitious  notions  of  the 
people,  that  the  peculiar  habits  of  the  clergy  were 
necessary  to  the  efficacy  of  religious  services,  and 
that  no  priestly  act  was  of  any  value  unless  per- 
formed in  a  priestly  dress.t 

Eidley  was  the  main  spokesman  on  the  other 
side.  He  granted  that  the  vestments  were  "neither 
things  to  be  regarded  as  necessary  to  spiritual 
health  and  salvation,  nor  yet  as  if  without  them 

♦  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  39,  40. 

f  The  above  summary  of  Hooper's  objections  is  quoted  from 
Punchard,  vol.  2,  pp.  195,  196. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE. 


97 


$ 


the  ministry  might  not  be  done ;"  but  he  argued 
**  that,  in  matters  of  rites  and  ceremonies,  custom 
was  a  good  argument  for  the  continuance  of  those 
that  had  been  long  used."* 

It  has  been  truly  said  that  this  argument  proved 
too  much ;  for  if  the  segis  of  custom  shielded  the 
vestments y  then  why  not  all  the  other  rites  and  cere- 
monies— the  gloves,  the  sandals,  the  mitre,  the 
ring,  the  crosier,  which  had  been  so  recently  abol- 
ished? 

This  debate,  seemingly  of  small  importance,  but 
which  contained  the  germs  of  Puritanism,  raged 
through  two  years.  At  the  outset  Cranmer  was 
inclined  to  side  with  Hooper,t  as  did  John  Eogers, J 
Bradford,§  and  the  larger  portion  of  the  reformed 
clergy  ;i|  but  he  at  length  opposed  this  "  puritani- 
cal" move,  urged  thereto  by  his  determination  to 
enforce  conformity  even  in  trifles. 

An  appeal  was  taken  to  the  famous  continental 
reformers,  Bucer  and  Martyr,  then  resident  in  Eng- 
land.!" Both  of  these  substantially  agreed  with 
Hooper ;  but  in  obedience  to  authority  and  to  re- 
store peace,  they  counselled  submission.  This  also 
was  the  advice  of  the  Genevan  doctors,  who,  grieved 
that  so  eminent  and  learned  a  preacher  should  be 
silenced,  urged  him  to  comply,  that  he  might  be  the 

♦  Bradford,  Writings,  p.  375.  f  Neale,  p.  41. 

X  Fuller,  Church  History,  vol.  4,  p.  62. 

§  Bradford,  Writings,  p.  22. 

II  Brook,  Lives  of  the  Puritans,  Introduction,  vol.,  1,  p.  9. 

H  Chapter  6,  p.  81. 

Puiitins.  O 


98 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


CHURCH  AND  STATE. 


99 


more  capable,  by  liis  autbority  and  influence  in  the 
church,  of  inaugurating  a  reformation.* 

Hooper  was  long  unwilling  to  obey,  and  his 
stiffness  provoked  his  persecution.  He  was  si- 
lenced, then  committed  to  the  custody  of  Cranmer, 
and  finally  thrown  into  Fleet  prison,  where,  to  the 
scandal  of   the  Keformation,  he  lay  for   several 

months,  t 

At  length  the  king  determined  to  dispense  with 
the  vestments  in  Hooper's  case,  and  his  consecra- 
tion was  ordered  to  proceed.  But  so  great  was  the 
reluctance  of  the  bench  of  bishops  to  acknowledge 
themselves  foiled,  that  the  business  dragged  through 
six  months  after  the  royal  order.  Nor  was  it  then 
settled  without  a  compromise ;  Hooper  consenting 
to  wear  the  vestments  at  the  ceremony  of  his  con- 
secration, on  condition  that  he  should  be  permitted 
to  dispense  with  them  ever  after,  ij: 

In  after  years  both  Kidley  and  Cranmer  came 
to  agree  cordially  with  Hooper's  estimate  of  the 
vestments ;  for  Fox  records  that  when  in  Mary's 
reign  the  papists,  in  their  ceremony  of  Ridley's 
degradation  f^om  the  priesthood,  desired  him  to 
array  himself  in  these  very  vestments,  he  refused ; 
nor  would  he  even  put  on  the  surplice,  which  they 
were  themselves  obliged  to  do,  "  with  all  the  trin- 
kets pertaining  to  the  mass.  And  as  they  put  it  on, 
Bidlej  did  vehemently  inveigh  against  the  Romish 
bishop,  and  all  that  foolish  apparel,  coX^ng  the  pope 


o  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  41. 
}  Burnet,  vol.  2,  p.  218. 


t  Ibid.,  p.  42. 


Antichrist,  and  the  habit  foolish  and  abominable, 
yea,  too  formal  for  a  vice  in  a  play,  too  ridiculous 
for  a  buffoon  in  a  comedy."* 

So  when  Bonner  stripped  off  the  vestments 
which  had  been  placed  on  Cranmer,  in  order  to 
degrade  him  preparatory  to  his  martyrdom,  he  re- 
plied, "All  this  needeth  not;  I  had  myself  done 
with  this  gear  long  ago."t 

The  "vestment  controversy"  was  quieted  in 
1551.  In  that  same  year  the  articles  which  com- 
posed the  doctrine  of  the  English  church  were  care- 
fully revised  ;$  and  some  things  which  had  been 
incorporated  in  the  original  draft,  in  compliance 
with  conimon  prejudice,  but  against  the  convictions 
of  the  reformers,  were  now  dashed  out.§  In  1552 
the  convocation  assented  to  the  "  Thirty-nine  Arti- 
cles" which  form  the  basis  of  Episcopacy.il  Under 
Elizabeth  some  of  the  articles  were  put  into  more 
general  words,!  but  no  essential  alterations  were 
made,  and  the  service-book  stands  now  almost  pre- 
cisely as  it  stood  after  Cranmer  and  Ridley  had 
new-modelled  it  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century.** 

o  Fox,  Acts,  etc.,  vol.  3,  p.  427. 

t  Fox,  Acts,  etc.,  vol.  3,  p.  558.  %  Burnet,  vol.  2,  p.  218. 

§  Lathbury  says,  "There  were  various  changes  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  book ;  several  rubrics  were  altered  or  omitted,  and 
some  were  added ;  certain  ornaments  were  enjoined  in  the  first 
book  which  were  dispensed  with  in  the  second ;  *  no  copes  or 
other  vestures  were  required,  but  the  surplice  only. ' "  Lathbury. 
pp.  32,  35.  II  Burnet,  Records,  No.  55. 

ir  Ibid.,  Hist.  Ref. 

<»•  Punchard,  vol.  2,  p.  214.     Lathbury. 


100 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 


One  of  the  marked  features  of  Edward's  reign 
was  the  honor  paid  to  preaching.  "Six  eminent 
preachers  were  chosen  out,"  sajs  Burnet,  "to  be 
the  king's  preachers  in  ordinary ;  two  of  these  were 
\  to  be  always  in  attendance  at  court ;  four  were  to 
be  sent  over  England  to  instruct  the  people.  Their 
names  were  Bill,  Harley,  Pern,  Grindal,  Bradford, 
and  John  Knox,  who  afterwards  kindled  the  gos- 
pel light  in  the  Scottish  horizon.  These,  it  seems, 
were  accounted  the  most  zealous  and  the  readiest 
preachers  of  that  time,  and  they  were  thus  dis- 
patched as  itinerants,  to  supply  the  defects  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  clergy,  who  were  generally  very 
faulty."* 

Since  the  year  1526  an  organized  club  had  ex- 
isted in  London,  called,  "  The  Association  of  Chris- 
tian Brothers,"  whose  object  was  the  circulation  of 
Bibles  and  religious  books.  "It  was  composed," 
says  Froude,  "  of  poor  men,  chiejfly  artisans,  trades- 
men, and  a  few,  a  very  few,  of  the  clergy ;  but  it 
was  carefully  organized,  was  provided  with  moder- 
ate funds,  which  were  regularly  audited ;  and  its 
paid  agents  went  up  and  down  the  country,  carry- 
ing Testaments  and  tracts  with  them,  and  enrolling 
in  the  order  all  who  dared  to  risk  their  lives  in  such 
a  cause."t 

In  its  early  years,  before  Henry  YIII.  broke 
with  the  papacy,  the  "Association"  had  a  hard 
struggle  for  life.    Its  agents  "  were  hounded  from 

o  Burnet,  vol.  2,  p.  225. 

t  Froude,  History  of  England,  vol.  2,  p.  28. 


CHUECH  AND  STATE. 


101 


one  place  to  another,  compelled  to  disguise  them- 
selves, to  hide  their  heads  in  friendly  habitations 
or  in  the  forests,  to  travel  by  night,  and  to  resort 
to  various  stratagems  by  day  to  escape  the  bish- 
op's  hands ;  and  with  all  their  care  they  were  not 
always  able  to  elude  the  diUgence  and  activity  of 
their  persecutors."* 

The  pious  pen  of  Fox  has  traced  in  quaint  old 
English  the  romantic  stories  of  several  of  these 
pioneer  colporteurs ;  and  in  thriUing  interest  and 
humble  Christian  heroism  they  glow  and  throb.t 

In  the  days  of  Edward  YI.  the  "Association" 
undoubtedly  found  it  pleasanter  sailing ;  and  since 
their  opportunities  were  broader,  their  work  was 
probably  grander.  This  was  a  Bible  society  and  a 
Tract  society ;  and  since  it  was  the  first  in  English 
history,  it  deserves  grateful  remembrance.  Could 
the  old  "Association"  step  from  its  grave  three 
centuries  deep,  and  shake  hands  with  its  mammoth 
descen(lants  on  either  continent,  it  might  be  con- 
tent to  return  once  more  to  the  tomb  with  the 
prayer  of  Simeon  upon  its  lips,  "  Now,  Lord,  lettest 
thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for  mine  eyes 
have  seen  the  beginning  of  thy  salvation." 

But  dark  days  were  coming  on  apace.  The 
"black  cloud  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand"  had 
already  risen  above  the  horizon.  The  fragile  and 
devout  young  king,  forced  into  unnatural  matu- 
rity, broke  and  fell.     His  reign  had  been  exceed- 

o  Punchard,  vol.  2,  p.  152. 

f  Fox,  Acts,  etc.,  vol.  2,  pp.  438,  441. 


102 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PUBITANS. 


ingly  turbulent.  His  very  counsellors  had  been 
proved  to  be  traitors ;  his  own  uncles  died  under 
the  hatchet  of  the  headsman. 

In  July,  1553,  Edward  VI.  expired.  A  satyr 
succeeded  to  Hyperion.  With  the  removal  of  this 
royal  breakwater,  a  vile  flood  of  popery  swept  over 
England,  while  above  the  surging  tempest  wailed 
the  cry  of  martyrs,  and  shrieked  the  joyous  laugh- 
ter of  demoniacs. 


-.\ 


THE  MAEIAN  EPOCH. 


103 


CHAPTEK  VIII. 

THE    MARIAN  EPOCH. 

The  death  of  Edward  VI.  plunged  England  into 
chaos.  "  Brawls  festering  to  rebellion  "  had  scarred 
every  month  of  his  short  reign.  Those  evils  which 
history,  speaking  through  a  dozen  familiar  French 
instances  and  through  half  as  many  English,  pro- 
claims inseparable  from  the  government  of  royal 
minors,  were  ubiquitous  and  rampant.  The  old 
chroniclers  draw  woful  pictures  of  the  men  and 
manners  of  that  epoch. 

Strype  makes  this  record :  "  How  good  soever 
Edward  was,  and  what  care  soever  was  taken  for 
the  bringing  in  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel  and 
restoring  Christ's  true  religion,  the  manners  of  men 
were  very  naught,  especially  of  a  great  sort  of  them. 
Among  the  grandees,  and  among  the  lesser  noble- 
men, many  were  insatiably  covetous.     The  truth  of 
this  appears  not  only  in  their  grasping  at  the  church 
lands,  rents,  and  plate,  but  in  their  raising  the  rents 
on  tenants,  inclosing  commons  which  had  been  for 
generations  open  pasturage  for  poor  men's  cattle, 
perverting  of  justice  by  intimidation  or  bribery,  and 
by  hoarding  up  all  the  gold  they  could' get.     To  this 
pass  had  covetousness  brought  the  nation,  that  ev- 
ery man  scraped  and  pillaged  from  the  other ;  every 
man  would  seek  another's  blood;  every  man  en- 


104 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


croached  upon  his  neighbor.  Covetonsness  cut 
away  the  large  wings  of  charity,  and  plucked  all  to 
herself.  She  had  clutched  all  the  old  gold  in  Eng- 
land, and  much  of  the  new."*  Crime  went  brazen 
and  unpunished;  and  "above  all  other  vices,  the 
outrageous  seas  of  adultery  burst  in,  and  over- 
whelmed all  the  world."t 

But  "  below  this  lowest  deep,  a  lower  deep  still 
yawned."  Into  the  "swept  and  garnished  cham- 
ber" of  the  Eeformation  Satan  came  again,  "with 
seven  other  devils  worse  than  himself." 

Henry  VIII.  had  fixed  it  by  his  will,  and  had 
it  enacted  by  Parliament,!  that,  in  case  of  the 
death  of  prince  Edward  without  issue,  his  daughter 
by  Catharine  of  Aragon,  the  princess  Mary,  should 
succeed  to  the  throne.  Should  both  these  die  with- 
out issue,  the  sceptre  was  to  be  handed  to  his  daugh- 
ter by  Jane  Seymour,  the  princess  Elizabeth.§ 

Henry  had  previously  illegitimatized  both  Mary 
and  Elizabeth  by  formal  statute  ;||  but  his  eventual 
decision  in  their  favor  was  in  exact  accordance  with 
the  capricious  character  of  the  headstrong  volup- 
tuary. 

In  point  of  law,  Mary's  title  to  the  throne  was 
clean.  Nevertheless  her  right  was  disputed.  She 
was  an  open  and  bitter  papist.  The  reformers 
feared  that  infant  Protestantism,  under  such  a 
governess,  would  be  strangled  in  its  cradle.    It 


*  Strype,  Eccl.  Mems.,  vol.  2,  pp.  131-137. 

1  Statutes,  35  Henry  VHI. 

)|  Hume,  Reign  of  Henry  VIIL 


t  Ibid. 
§  Ibid. 


THE  MARIAN  EPOCH. 


105 


came  now  to  be  seen  that  an  absolute  supremacy 
over  the  consciences  of  men,  lodged  in  a  single  per- 
son, might  be  prejudicial  as  well  as  beneficial  to  the 
gospel  tenets.* 

Edward,  influenced  by  fear  for  menaced  reform, 
and  worked  on  by  the  ambition  of  Northumberland, 
his  chief  counsellor,  was  won,  while  resting  under 
broken  health,  to  sign  a  will  settling  the  crown  upon 
Lady  Jane  Grey,  next  in  blood  after  the  tabooed 
princesses,  and  a  woman  of  rare  purity,  of  singular 
genius,  of  profound  scholarship,  and  a  zealous  ad- 
herent of  the  Reformation.t 

To  this  unlawful  testament — for  the  king  was  a 
minor,  and  therefore  incapable  of  making  a  legal 
will — the  royal  council  set  their  hands.  Then,  on 
Edward's  death,  the  treason  touched  its  climax  in 
the  coronation  of  Lady  Jane  Grey.  J 

A  variety  of  circumstances  united  to  defeat  the 
conspiracy.  The  young  queen's  relatives  were  un- 
popular, and  this  made  the  people  either  coldly  indif- 
ferent or  actively  hostile  to  the  new  regime.^  Then 
the  usurpation  was  so  palpable,  that  even  the  most 
zealous  of  the  reformers  were  forced  to  protest. 
Hooper  openly  proclaimed  Mary  to  be  the  rightful 
heir.ll  Cranmer  ,only  half-heartedly  opposed  her 
claims.l  It  is  impossible  to  rally  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  to  the  defence  of  a  policy  which  they  perceive 

•  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  50,  f  Ibid.,  Fuller,  Burnet,  etc. 

X  Froude,  Hume,  Lingard,  etc. 

§  Burnet,  vol.  2,  pp.  456-458  ;  Fox,  Acts,  etc.,  vol.  3,  pp.  11-1 6L 
II  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  53.  1^  Punchard,  vol.  2,  p.  272 

6* 


106         HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

to  be  clearly  in  defiance  of  their  fundamental  pre- 
cepts. There  is  more  terror  to  an  Englishman  in 
the  writ  of  a  constable  than  in  a  thousand  bayonets. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  is  wedded  to  the  forms  of  law ; 
often  so  blindly  enamoured  of  mere  forms,  that  he 
has  no  eyes  to  see  substantial  law  in  any  justice 
which  is  outside  of  the  statute.  'T  is  the  secret  of 
Saxon  progress— liberty  regulated  by  law.  This 
was  why  the  "  great  rebellion  "  in  the  next  century 
was  only  possible  because  the  tliinkers  of  Great 
Britain,  Pym,  Hampden,  and  the  rest,  had  out- 
grown the  monarchy.  No  war-cry  ever  stirred  a 
generous  people  which  had  not  in  it  much  of  truth 
and  right. 

The  nascent  government  of  Lady  Jane  Grey  was 
seen  to  be  the  juggle  of  Northumberland ;  so  it 
failed. 

After  considerable  manoeuvring,  Mary,  cordial- 
ly supported  by  the  Eomanist  element  and  reluc-  * 
tantly  acquiesced  in  by  the  conscientious  reformers, 
was  recognized  by  the  royal  council,  by  the  citizens 
of  London,  by  England  at  large ;  and  four  weeks 
after  the  decease  of  her  brother,  without  spilling  a 
drop  of  blood,  she  was  firmly  seated  on  the  throne, 

with  Northumberland's  shattered  cabal  beneath  her 
feet.* 

Thus  the  reddest,  dreariest  reign  in  English  his- 
tory began  with  a  bloodless  triumph.  The  Vatican 
bloodlessly  subdued  an  emeiite;  then  smeared  the 
island  with  martyr  gore  in  profound  peace. 

*  Hume ;  Lingard ;  Neale,  toI.  1,  p.  52. 


THE  MARIAN  EPOCH. 


107 


"No  faith  is  to  be  kept  with  heretics,"  says 
Eome.  Mary  hugged  that  ugly  canon  to  her  cruel 
heart,  and  set  about  illustrating  it.  Her  bigotry 
had  four  phases. 

When  she  skulked  in  Suffolk,  a  fugitive  half- 
hopeless  of  the  crown,  she  appealed  to  the  yeomen 
of  that  Protestant  county  for  support,  assuring  them 
that  religion  should  be  left  by  her,  if  she  obtained 
her  right,  upon  king  Edward's  basis.*  It  was  this 
positive  asseveration  that  won  the  too  credulous  Suf- 
folkers  to  rally  to  her  standard.  History  affirms 
that  it  was  through  their  aid  that  Mary  was  event- 
ually placed  upon  the  throne.t 

Her  first  step  towards  empire  was  taken  on  a  lie; 
for  a  little  later,  after  her  acknowledgment,  she  not 
only  released  Bonner,  Gardiner,  and  the  rest  of  the 
popish  bishops  from  the  Tower,  but  she  declared  in 
,open  council  that,  "though  her  own  mind  was  set- 
tled in  matters  of  rehgion,  yet  she  was  resolved  not 
to  compel  others,  save  by  tJie  preaching  of  the  wordf'X 
thus  insinuating  that  the  Koman  creed  was  to  be 
restored,  but  not  by  compulsion. 

Mary's  bigotry  was  of  the  nature  of  an  intermit- 
tent fever ;  for  nine  days'  further  reflection  con- 
vinced her  that  she  had  not  gone  far  enough.  Ac- 
cordingly she  published  an  inhibition  forbidding  all 
preaching  without  special  license.  In  this  docu- 
ment she  declared  herself  to  be  of  "  that  religion 

.     *  CoUier,  vol.  6,  p.  6.     Fox,  Acts,  vol.  3,  p.  12.     Burnet,  voL 
2,  p.  475.  I  iiji^ 

1  Burnet,  vol.  2,  p.  490 ;  Fox ;  Collier. 


108         HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 

which  she  had  professed  from  her  infancy;"  yet 
affirmed  that  "  she  did  not  compel  any  of  her  sub- 
jects to  it  till  public  order  should  he  takeri  on  it."* 

The  inhibition  was  the  first  puff  of  the  approach- 
ing whirlwind.  Ere  long  the  full  storm  burst.  The 
Protestant  pulpits  were  shackled ;  and  when  a  del- 
egation of  Suffolk  men  waited  upon  her  majesty,  and 
presumed  to  remind  her  of  her  engagement  not  to 
change  the  basis  of  the  national  faith,  "  the  queen 
checked  them  for  their  insolence ;  and  one  of  their 
ijumber  chancing  to  mention  her  promise,  he  was 
pilloried  for  three  days  and  had  his  ears  cut  off,  for 
defamation."t 

Gardiner  and  Bonner  were  restored  to  their  re- 
cusant bishoprics.  Hooper,  Latimer,  Rogers,  Tay- 
lor, and  a  host  of  less  distinguished  worthies,  were 
hastikd.X  Peter  Martyr,  John  a  Lasco,  and  the  for- 
eign Protestants  were  commanded  to  quit  inhospi- 
table Britain  ;§  and  so- fierce  grew  the  papist  tem-  ' 
per  of  the  government,  that  a  swarm  of  English  re- 
formers accompanied  them,  self-exiled,  into  foreign 
parts.ll 

"  Eight  weeks  and  upwards  passed,"  says  Fuller, 
"  between  the  proclaiming  of  Mary  queen  and  the 
Pafliament  by  her  assembled;  during  which  time 
two  religions  were  togetlier  set  on  foot.  Protestant- 
ism and  Popery ;  the  former  hoping  to  be  contin- 

•  Collier,  vol.  6,  p.  12 ;  Neale,  Punchard,  Lathburj%  Fuller, 
t  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  52,  53.  j  ibid. 

§  Burnet,  vol.  2,  p.  493. 
jl  Fox,  Acts,  vol.  3,  p.  13.    Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  379. 


THE  MARIAN  EPOCH. 


109 


ued,  the  latter  laboring  to  be  restored.  And  as  the 
Jews'  children,  after  the  captivity,  spoke  a  middle 
language  betwixt  Hebron  and  Ashdod,*  so,  during 
the  aforesaid  interim,  the  churches  of  England  had 
a  mongrel  celebration  of  their  divine  services,  be- 
twixt reformation  and  superstition,  "t 

Images  were  set  up  in  various  places ;  and  the 
Latin  ritual,  though  against  the  still  unrepealed 
laws,  was  openly  used.f  In  August,  1553,  Gardiner 
was  commissioned  "to  license  such  as  he  thought 
meet  to  preach  God's  word."§  This  insured  the 
exclusion  of  the  reformed  clergy. 

In  October,  1553,  Mary  was  crowned  by  Gardi- 
ner, now  become  keeper  of  the  great  seal.  The 
new  lord-chancellor  was  assisted  by  ten  other  bish- 
ops, all  in  their  mitres,  caps,  and  croziers;  and 
the  ceremony  was  conducted  with  all  the  pomp  of 
the  Eoman  ritual. Il 

From  this  time  Gardiner  became  the  chief  of  the 
reaction ;  he  was  to  Mary  what  Cranmer  had  been 
to  Edward. 

A  few  days  after  the  coronation.  Parliament  met. 
This  Parliament  outdid  in  servile  meanness  its  base 
fellows  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  It  was  packed 
by  new  members,  elected  by  bribery  and  menace  ;1 
and  the  old  members,  yearning  for  "  the  flesh-pots 
of  Egypt,"  were  soon  dragooned  into  servihty.     The 

*  Neh.  12  :24.  t  FuUer,  Ch.  Hist,  vol.  2,  p.  375. 

X  Punchard,  vol.  2,  p.  277. 

§  Burnet,  vol.  2,  p.  493.    Fox,  vol.  3,  p.  12. 

II  Lingard,  Froude,  Neale.  ir  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  51. 


T 


110         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

lackey  Parliament  commenced  its  work  by  affirming 
the  lawfulness  of  Henry's  marriage  with  Catharine 
of  Aragon  and  Mary's  legitimacy.     It  then  proceed- 
ed to  repeal  all  the  religious  enactments  of  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIII. ;  to  decree  that  "  there  should  be 
no  other  form  of  divine  service  than  that  which  was 
used  in  the  last  year  of  Henry  VIII.,"  which  was  a 
resurrection  of  the  "Six  Articles;"*  to  fulminate 
severe  penalties  against  such  as  should  deface  stat- 
ues, abuse  the  sacrament,  or  break  down  crucifixes, 
altars,  and  crosses ;  and  to  make  it  penal  "  for  any 
number  above  twelve  to  assemble  for  the  purpose 
of  altering  the  established  creed  ;"t  a  statute  which 
made  the  punishment  of  dissenters  easy  and  legal. 
As  was  the  custom  in  those  days,  a  convocation 
of  the  clergy  sat  with  the  Parliament ;  and  this  hke- 
wise  was  packed  with  the  creatures  of  the  court.J 
Care  had  been  taken  to  exclude  the  Protestant 
divines;  nevertheless,  when  Bonner,  who  presid- 
ed, proposed  that  all  subscribe  to  the  dogma  of 
transubstantiation,  four  members  stoutly  dissented, 
and  debated  the  question  through  three  days  with 
such  vigor  and  eloquence  that  the  blustering  prolo- 
cutor was  obliged  to  cut  short  the  disputation  with 
the  acknowledgment,  "  You  have  the  tvord,  hut  ice 
have  the  sicord^^ 

It  is  not  necessary  to  recite  minutely  the  his- 
tory of  the  various  civil  and  ecclesiastical  acts  which. 


THE  MARIAN  EPOCH. 


Ill 


•  Chap.  5,  p.  74. 

t  Statutes  of  the  Reahn,  1  Queen  Mary. 

X  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  51. 


6  Ibid.,  p.  55. 


in  the  reign  of  Mary,  reconciled  England  to  Home. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  subsequent  Parliaments,  se- 
duced by  Spanish  gold,  sanctioned  the  queen's  mar- 
riage with  Philip  II.  of  Spain  f  confirmed  Mary's 
resignation  of  her  title  of  supreme  head  of  the 
church  to  the  pope;  repealed  all  acts  done  since 
the  twentieth  year  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 
against  the  pontiff  and  his  supremaj^;  sued  on 
bended  knees  for  the  papal  absolution,  which  was 
granted  by  cardinal  Pole,  the  pontifical  legate ;  and 
revived  the  barbarous  statutes  of  the  second  Rich- 
ard and  the  fourth  and  fifth  Henries  for  the  execu- 
tion of  heretics  by  fire.f 

The  dance  of  death  now  began.  K  point  d'appui 
was  gained  ;  and  those  twin  jackals  of  Home,  Gar- 
diner and  Bonner,  commenced  the  hunt.  Bonner 
was  an  ideal  Thug ;  he  was  the  hero  of  the  black- 
guardism of  his  time.  Gardiner  was  a  keener,  more 
polished  knave.  "  He  is  to  be  traced  hke  a  fox," 
said  bishop  Lloyd ;  "  and  like  the  Hebrew,  he  must 
be  read  backward.''^ 

Lady  Jane  Grey  and  the  other  actors  in  the 
unhappy  drama  of  the  usurpation  were  executed  in 
1554:.§  Sir  Thomas  Wyat,  a  Kentish  knight  who 
had  taken  arms  to  defeat  the  Spanish  match,  as- 
cended the  scaffold  in  that  same  year.ll  And  now 
that  these  pohtical  victims  were  in  their  graves,  the 

*  Statutes  of  the  Beahn,  2  Queen  Mary. 

t  Ibid.,  3  Queen  Mary.    See  Burnet,  Records,  vol.  2. 

X  Cited  in  Punchard,  vol.  2,  p.  208. 

§  Hume,  Reign  of  Mary,  year  1554.  ||  Ibid. 


112 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


government,  maddened  by  this  taste  of  blood,  de- 
termined to  deluge  heresy  in  gore. 

A  Court  of  Inquisition  was  set  up.*  A  bureau 
of  spies  was  formed.t  England  was  put  under  sur- 
veillance.  Letters  were  written  to  Lord  North  and 
others,  enjoining  them  "  to  put  to  the  torture  such 
obstinate  persons  as  would  not  abjure."t 

Thus  it  was  that  practised  Kome  dwarfed  the 
clumsy  and  illogical  persecution  of  the  preceding 
Protestant  regime.  The  Keformation  stooped  to 
kindle  autos  dafe  with  awkward,  ill-dissembled  ter- 
ror ;  Eome  did  it  with  the  graceful  nonchalance  of 
an  adept. 

In  order  to  serve  the  twofold  purpose  of  ren- 
dering them  ridiculous  and  entrapping  them  in 
their  own  words,  Cranmer,  Kidley,  and  Latimer 
were  "  baited  and  abused  at  Oxford,  under  pretence 
of  debating  the  sacramental  question.  They  were 
ordered  to  appear  separately  each  day  before  the 
gathered  champions  of  popery.  No  conference  with 
each  other  was  allowed ;  but  alone,  with  only  such 
preparation  as  could  be  made  within  their  prison 
walls,  each  was  bidden  to  dispute  on  themes  drawn 
up  by  their  subtle  enemies."§  A  pimp  named  Wes- 
ton, the  congenial  chaplain  of  Bonner,  was  procu- 
rator of  this  tumultuous  assembly ;  and  Fox  tells  us 
that  the  drunken  bloat  sat  with  "  his  tippling-cup 
at  his  elbow  aU  the  time  of  the  disputation."! 


*  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  697. 

t  Pnnchard,  vol.  2,  pp.  287,  288. 

11  Fox,  vol.  8,  p.  70. 


\  Ibid. 
§  Ibid. 


i 


I 


THE  MARIAN  EPOCH. 


113 


It  was  no  part  of  the  design  to  secure  a  fair  de- 
bate ;  accordingly  these  eminent  men  were  hooted 
and  pelted  and  insulted  ad  libitum  by  the  vulgar 
crowd  of  Koman  clergy.  "  There  was  great  disor- 
der, perpetual  shoutings,  tauntings,  and  reproach- 
es," says  Ridley  in  his  account  of  the  pitiable  farce, 
"  so  that  it  looked  like  a  stage  rather  than  a  school 
of  divines."^ 

Yet  despite  the  disadvantage  under  which  they 
labored,  the  reformers  "  obliged  the  Romanists  to 
avow  that,  according  to  their  doctrine,  Christ  had, 
in  his  last  supper,  held  himself  in  his  hand,  and 
swallowed  and  eaten  himself."! 

"  Cranmer  and  Ridley  were  so  hissed  and  de- 
rided, Latimer  was  so  borne  down  by  noise  and 
clamor,"  that  they  all  refused  to  dispute  again. 
This  gave  the  papists  the  desired  opportunity; 
they  declared  the  champions  of  the  Reformation 
to  be  vanquished,  and  called  upon  them  to  recant. 
This  of  course  all  three  refused  to  do.  They  were 
remanded  to  prison,  and  bidden  to  prepare  for 
death.  J 

In  the  following  year,  1555,  the  government 
lighted  an  auto  dafe.  Hooper,  Rogers,  and  Card- 
maker,  who  had  lain  in  prison  for  eigh  teen  months 
without  law,  were  taken  out  to  be  burned. 

Rogers  was  the  first  martyr  in  the  Marian  death- 
dance.  On  the  morning  of  the  fourth  of  February 
he  was  ordered  to  be  burned  at  Smithfield,  an  old 

♦  Burnet,  vol.  2,  p.  562.  f  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  686. 

I  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  56,  57. 


112         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

government,  maddened  by  tliis  taste  of  blood,  de- 
termined to  deluge  heresy  in  gore. 

A  Court  of  Inquisition  was  set  up.*  A  bureau 
of  spies  was  formed.t  England  was  put  under  sur- 
veiUance.  Letters  were  written  to  Lord  North  and 
others,  enjoining  them  "  to  put  to  the  torture  such 
obstinate  persons  as  would  not  abjure.''^ 

Thus  it  was  that  practised  Eome  dwarfed  the 
clumsy  and  illogical  persecution  of  the  preceding 
Protestant  regime.  The  Eeformation  stooped  to 
kindle  autos  dafe  with  awkward,  ill-dissembled  ter- 
ror ;  Eome  did  it  with  the  graceful  nonchalance  of 
an  adept. 

In  order  to  serve  the  twofold  purpose  of  ren- 
dering them  ridiculous  and  entrapping  them  in 
their  own  words,  Cranmer,  Eidley,  and  Latimer 
were  "  baited  and  abused  at  Oxford,  under  pretence 
of  debating  the  sacramental  question.  They  were 
ordered  to  appear  separately  each  day  before  the 
gathered  champions  of  popery.  No  conference  with 
each  other  was  allowed ;  but  alone,  with  only  such 
preparation  as  could  be  made  within  their  prison 
walls,  each  was  bidden  to  dispute  on  themes  drawn 
up  by  their  subtle  enemies."§  A  pimp  named  Wes- 
ton, the  congenial  chaplain  of  Bonner,  was  procu- 
rator of  this  tumultuous  assembly ;  and  Fox  tells  us 
that  the  drunken  bloat*  sat  with  "  his  tippling-cup 
at  his  elbow  all  the  time  of  the  disputation."! 


THE  MARIAN  EPOCH. 


113 


*  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  697. 

%  Punchard,  vol.  2,  pp.  287,  288. 

II  Fox,  vol.  3,  p.  70. 


\  Ibid. 
§  Ibid. 


It  was  no  part  of  the  design  to  secure  a  fair  de- 
bate ;  accordingly  these  eminent  men  were  hooted 
and  pelted  and  insulted  ad  libitum  by  the  vulgar 
crowd  of  Eoman  clergy.  "  There  was  great  disor- 
der, perpetual  shoutings,  taun tings,  and  reproach- 
es," says  Eidley  in  his  account  of  the  pitiable  farce, 
"  so  that  it  looked  like  a  stage  rather  than  a  school 
of  divines."* 

Yet  despite  the  disadvantage  under  which  they 
labored,  the  reformers  "  obliged  the  Eomanists  to 
avow  that,  according  to  their  doctrine,  Christ  had, 
in  his  last  supper,  held  himself  in  his  hand,  and 
swallowed  and  eaten  himself."t 

"  Cranmer  and  Eidley  were  so  hissed  and  de- 
rided, Latimer  was  so  borne  down  by  noise  and 
clamor,"  that  they  all  refused  to  dispute  again. 
This  gave  the  papists  the  desired  opportunity; 
they  declared  the  champions  of  the  Eeformation 
to  be  vanquished,  and  called  upon  them  to  recant. 
This  of  course  all  three  refused  to  do.  They  were 
remanded  to  prison,  and  bidden  to  prepare  for 
death.  J 

In  the  following  year,  1555,  the  government 
lighted  an  auto  dafL  Hooper,  Eogers,  and  Card- 
maker,  who  had  lain  in  prison  for  eigh  teen  months 
without  law,  were  taken  out  to  be  burned. 

Eogers  was  the  first  martyr  in  the  Marian  death- 
dance.  On  the  morning  of  the  fourth  of  February 
he  was  ordered  to  be  burned  at  Smith  field,  an  old 


*  Burnet,  vol.  2,  p.  562. 
\  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  56,  57. 


t  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  686. 


114         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

suburb  of  London,  and  famous  since  the  days  of 
Wickliffe  as  the  ghastly  rendezvous  of  the  fire  gobl- 
ins. The  very  memory  of  this  quaint  old  suburb 
was  long  a  terror.  For  a  hundred  years  the  Lollard 
had  heard  the  word  "  Smithfield"  only  to  shudder. 
Now  the  reformers  listened  to  it,  and  felt  their  very 
flesh  crawl.  Smithfield  was  the  torture-spot  of  Brit- 
ain. It  was  as  horrible  to  the  island  as  the  fright- 
ful prison  of  the  "  Bridge  of  Sighs"  was  to  mediae- 
val Venice.     It  was  the  fiery  grave  of  "  heresy." 

It  was  to  this  spot  that  old  John  Kogers  was  led 
to  die. 

That  morning  crowds  might  have  been  seen 
gathering  to  gaze  on  a  spectacle  with  which  many 
had  become  sadly  familiar.  In  an  open  space,  in 
the  midst  of  an  old  inclosure  then  devoted  to  the 
work  of  murder,  stood  the  cruel  pile,  amply  sup- 
plied with  fagots,  surrounded  by  barriers,  and  by 
officers  armed  to  keep  back  the  surging  populace. 

The  tenements  in  a  street  then  called  Long- 
lane,  built  on  both  sides  for  "  brokers  and  tipplers," 
yielded  their  contribution  of  thoughtless  and  pro- 
fane idlers.  Grave  and  more  respectable  citizens 
were  wending  their  way  through  old  Giltspur-street 
and  other  avenues,  while  from  the  windows  of  the 
fair  inns  and  other  comely  buildings  which  adorned 
with  their  picturesque  architecture  the  western  side 
of  ancient  Smithfield,  many  a  face  looked  out  upon 
the  dense  masses  in  front  of  the  phurch  of  Barthol- 
omew Priory,  whose  tottering  wooden  steeple  still 
rose  to  heaven,  the  memorial  of  a  monastic  house 


f 


THE  MAEIAN  EPOCH. 


115 


F 


which,  before  the  dissolution  of  abbeys  in  the  time  of 
Henry  VIII.,  had  stood  there  in  its  pomp  and  pride, 
one  of  the  noblest  architectural  ornaments  of  Lon- 
don. 

Suddenly  there  was  a  stir ;  some  officers  pressed 
through  the  throng,  and,  close  to  the  stake,  repeated 
a  proclamation  which  had  been  already  announced 
by  placards  on  the  city  walls,  near  the  archway  of 
frowning  Newgate  prison,  forbidding  any  one,  under 
pain  of  imprisonment,  to  speak  a  word  to  the  forth-* 
coming  martyr. 

A  band  of  serious  persons  yonder,  standing 
close  together,  listened  to  these  words  with  deep 
emotion,  as  men  who  had  come  to  sympathize  with 
the  holy  sufferer,  and  who  were  resolved  that  the 
expression  of  their  sentiments  by  glance  and  coun- 
tenance at  least  should  not  be  enchained  by  the 
merciless  edict. 

Another  stir  announced  the  approach  of  the  vic- 
tim. A  deep  hush  fell  upon  the  multitude ;  while 
clear,  serene,  almost  joyous,  a  sweet  voice  was  heard 
reciting  the  fifty-first  psalm :  "  Have  mercy  upon 
me,  O  God,  according  to  thy  loving-kindness :  ac- 
cording unto  the  multitude  of  thy  tender  mercies 
blot  out  my  transgressions.  Wash  me  thoroughly 
from  mine  iniquity,  and  cleanse  me  from  my  sin. 
For  I  acknowledge  my  transgressions,  and  my  sin 
is  ever  before  me.  Against  thee,  thee  only,  have  I 
sinned,  and  done  this  evil  in  thy  sight ;  that  thou 
mightest  be  justified  when  thou  speakest,  and  be 
clear  when  thou  judgest.    Make  me  to  hear  joy 


116 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


and  gladness ;  that  the  bones  which  thou  hast  bro- 
ken may  rejoice.  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O 
God ;  and  renew  a  right  spirit  within  me.  Cast  mo 
not  away  from  thy  presence ;  and  take  not  thy  Holy 
Spirit  from  me.  Eestore  unto  me  the  joy  of  thy  sal- 
vation ;  and  uphold  me  with  thy  free  Spirit.  Then 
will  I  teach  transgressors  thy  ways;  and  sinners 
shall  be  converted  unto  thee.  O  Lord,  open  thou 
my  lips,  and  my  mouth  shall  show  forth  thy  praise. 
•Do  good  in  thy  good  pleasure  unto  Zion :  build  thou 
the  waUs  of  Jerusalem.  Then  shalt  thou  be  pleased 
with  the  sacrifices  of  righteousness,  with  burnt-offer- 
ing and  whole  burnt-offering." 

As  these  striking  words  resounded  over  Smith- 
field-square,  the  solemn  stillness  grew  threefold 
more  silent,  while  with  intense  interest  all  eyes 
were  fixed  upon  the  placid  martyr. 

He  was  quickly  bound  to  the  fatal  stake ;  and 
just  before  the  fagots  were  kindled,  he  was  urged 
to  recant,  bidden  to  remember  his  wife  and  ten 
children,  left  wholly  unprovided  for,  and  promised 
a  pardon  as  the  reward  of  apostasy.  John  Kogers, 
for  it  was  he,  was  firm.  "God  will  care  for  my 
children,"  said  he.  The  flames  were  then  started. 
Higher,  higher  they  leaped  and  laughed  and  crack- 
led ;  while  from  the  centre  of  the  livid  horror  Rog- 
ers continued  to  exhort  and  "  wash  his  hands  in  the 
fire,"  till  God  ended  all,  and  took  him  to  himself.* 

The  impression  was  deep  and  lasting.  Men 
heaved  a  sigh ;  and  as  they  turned  from  the  scene 

Btimet,  Hist  Ref.,  vol.  2,  pp.  385,  386 ;  Fuller,  Fox,  etc 


THE  MARIAN  EPOCH. 


117 


^ 


in  Smithfield,  they  mused  on  it  in  their  heart  of 
hearts.  Often  had  the  praise  of  heroism  been  there 
bestowed  on  some  proud  knight  as  he  bore  his  lance 
in  tilt  and  tournay,  while  his  name  had  been  in- 
scribed with  honor  in. the  rolls  of  chivalry.  But 
the  praise  of  an  infinitely  nobler  heroism  belonged 
to  this  Christian  martyr.  His  name  was  embla- 
zoned on  no  herald's  roll ;  but  it  was  written  in  the 
book  of  God's  remembrance :  and  he  "  shall  be 
mine,  saith  the  Lord,  in  the  day  that  I  make  up 
my  jewels."* 

Five  days  after  the  martyrdom  of  Rogers,  Hoop- 
er was  burned  at  Gloucester,  in  his  old  bishopric. t 
He  was  not  suffered  to  address  the  people ;  but  no 
brutal  dictum  could  prevent  his  addressing  God. 
This  he  did  with  great  fervor.  When  the  flames 
were  kindled,  the  wood  was  found  to  be  green,  so 
that  the  victim  was  "  nigh  three  quarters  of  an  hour 
in  burning  to  death.":]:  His  legs  and  thighs  were 
roasted,  and  one  of  his  hands  dropped  off  before  he 
expired.§  But  no  racking  pain  could  shake  his 
serene  trust ;  his  last  words  were,  "  Lord  Jesus,  re- 
ceive my  spirit."|i 

Some  months  later  John  Bradford,  one  of  the 
most  lovable  and  beautiful  characters  in  ecclesias- 
tical history,  of  whom  it  is  said  that  his  prison  let- 
ters were  grander  even  than  his  sermons,!  ascend- 

*  Stoughton,  Heroes  of  Puritan  Times,  pp.  17-20. 
t  Burnet,  vol.  2,  p.  386.  X  Ibid. 

§  Ibid.     Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  69.  ||  Ibid. 

IT  Fox,  Acts,  etc.,  vol.  3,  pp.  232-300.     Fox's  account  of  Brad- 
ford is  singularly  full  and  affectionate. 


118 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 


f 


ed  into  heaven  in  a  chariot  of  fire.  When  he  came 
to  the  stake  at  Smithfield,  says  Burnet,  "  Bradford 
fell  down  and  prayed.  Then  he  kissed  the  stake, 
and  likewise  took  a  fagot  in  his  hand  and  kissed 
that,  expressing  thereby  the  joy  he  had  in  his  suf- 
ferings ;  and  he  cried,  "  Oh,  England,  repent,  re- 
pent ;  beware  of  idolatry  and  false  antichrists  !'* 
But  the  sheriff  hindering  him  from  speaking  any 
more,  he  embraced  a  fellow-sufferer,  and  prayed 
him  to  be  of  good  cheer,  for  they  should  sup  with 
Christ  that  night.  His  last  words  were,  *  Strait  is 
the  way  and  narrow  is  the  gate  that  leadeth  into 
eternal  life,  and  few  there  be  that  find  it.*  "* 

From  smoking  Smithfield  the  autos  dafe  broad- 
en over  England.  In  the  months  of  June  and  July 
of  this  same  black  year  of  1555, "  eight  men  and  one 
woman,"  says  Neale,  "  were  burned  in  Kent ;  and 
in  the  months  of  August  and  September,  twenty-five 
more  suffered  in  Suffolk,  Essex,  and  Surry.  In  Oc- 
tober, Ridley  and  Latimer  were  martyred  at  one 
stake  in  Oxford.  Latimer  died  presently ;  but  Rid- 
ley was  a  long  time  in  exquisite  torments,  his  lower 
limbs  being  consumed  before  the  flames  reached 
his  body.  His  last  words  to  Latimer  were,  "  Be  of 
good  heart,  brother ;  for  God  will  either  assuage  the 
fury  of  the  flame,  or  enable  us  to  abide  it."  And 
Latimer  responded  with  characteristic  vigor,  "  Be  of 
good  comfort ;  for  we  shall  this  day  Hght  such  a 
candle  in  England  as,  I  trust,  by  God's  grace  shall 
never  be  put  out."t 

o  Bnmet,  vol.  2,  pp.  401,  402.  f  Neale,  vol.  1.  p.  62. 


THE  MARIAN  EPOCH. 


119 


It  has  been  said  that  on  this  very  same  day 
Gardiner,  the  chief  persecutor,  was  struck  with  sud- 
den illness,  which  held  him  in  great  agony  through 
thirty  days,  when  he  expired.*  "  He  would  not  sit 
down  to  dinner  till  he  had  received  news  from  Ox- 
ford of  the  burning  of  Latimer  and  Ridley,  which 
came  not  till  four  in  the  afternoon ;  and  while  at 
dinner,  he  was  seized  with  the  distemper  which 
ended  his  Hfe."t  * 

Burnet  writes  this  eulogy  upon  Latimer  and 
Ridley :  "  The  one,  for  his  piety,  learning,  and  soHd 
judgment,  was  held  the  ablest  man  of  all  that  ad- 
vanced the  Reformation ;  and  the  other,  for  the  plain 
simplicity  of  his  life,  was  esteemed  the  model  of  a 
truly  primitive  bishop  and  Christian."^ 

In  March,  1556,  Cranmer  expiated  his  cruel 
abuse  of  power  when  he  controlled  the  destiny 
of  England,  by  meeting  himself  that  martyrdom 
which  he  had  awarded  to  others.  Petty  bickerings 
about  the  succession  to  his  see  of  Canterbury  had 
preserved  his  hfe  thus  far.  Gardiner  and  Pole 
both  desired  it  ;§  now,  since  the  death  of  Gardiner, 
every  moment  lost  was  an  opportunity  for  misfor- 
tune. Accordingly  it  was  decided  to  burn  the  bro- 
ken and  imprisoned  ecclesiastic.il  By  much  persua- 
sion, and  hoping  thus  to  save  his  hfe,  Cranmer 
had  signed  a  paper  abjuring  his  belief.     "  This  was 

o  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  62. 

f  Ibid.     Other  writers  deny  this  version  of  Gardiner's  death ; 
but  Neale's  account  is  sustained  by  Burnet,  vol.  2.  pp.  409,  410 
X  Burnet,  vol.  2,  pp.  408,  409. 
§  Ibid.,  pp.  418-425.  ||  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  62. 


120        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

quickly  published  to  the  world,  with  great  triumph 
among  the  papists  and  exceeding  grief  to  the  re- 
formers. But  the  unmerciful  queen  was  still  re- 
solved to  have  his  life.  Accordingly  she  sent  down 
a  writ  for  his  execution.  She  could  never  forgive 
him  for  the  share  he  had  taken  in  her  mother's 
divorce,*  and  in  driving  the  Pope's  authority  out  of 
England.  Cranmer,  suspecting  this  design  before 
the  warrant  came  down,  prepared  a  true  confession 
of  his  faith,  which  he  carried  in  his  bosom  to  St. 
Mary's  church  on  the  day  of  his  martyrdom. 

"  Here  he  was  raised  on  an  eminence,  that  he 
might  be  seen  by  the  people  while  he  listened  to 
his  own  funeral  sermon.  Never  was  there  a  more 
melancholy  spectacle ;  an  archbishop,  once  the  sec- 
ond man  in  the  kingdom,  now  clothed  in  rags,  and 
a  gazing-stock  to  the  vulgar  multitude. 

"  Cole,  the  Eomanist  preacher,  magnified  Cran- 
mer's  recent  conversion  as  the  immediate  hand  of 
God,  and  turning  towards  his  penitent,  assured  him 
that  many  masses  for  the  salvation  of  his  soul  should 
be  said.  After  the  sermon,  the  archbishop  was  re- 
quested to  declare  his  own  faith ;  which  he  did  with 
tears,  professing  his  belief  in  the  holy  Scriptures 
and  in  the  Apostles'  creed.  He  then  came  to  that 
which,  he  said,  had  troubled  his  conscience  more 
than  any  thing  else  which  he  had  done  in  his  life, 
and  that  was,  the  subscription  of  his  abjuration. 
This  was  done  out  of  a  fear  of  death  and  a  love  of 
life ;  therefore  he  affirmed  his  determination,  when 

o  Chap.  4. 


I 


THE  MARIAN  EPOCH. 


121 


J 


he  came  to  the  fire,  of  burning  first  the  hand  which 
had  subscribed  the  paper.^' 

The  assembly  broke  up  in  confusion  and  disap- 
pointment; and  the  venerable  and  heart-broken 
prelate  was  led,  shedding  abundant  tears,  to  the 
stake.  On  being  tied  to  it,  he  did  indeed  stretch 
out  his  right  hand  to  the  flame,  never  moving  it  but 
once,  to  wipe  his  face,  till  it  dropped  off.  He  often 
cried  out,  "  Oh  that  unworthy  hand,  that  unworthy 
hand."  And  his  last  words,  like  Hooper's,  were, 
"  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  soul."* 

But  this  volume  is  not  a  martyrology ;  it  is  not 
therefore  within  its  scope  to  go  further  into  these 
sad  details.  Besides,  it  were  needless  to  do  so  ;  for 
we  may  say  with  Fuller,  that  "  this  point  hath  been 
already  handled  so  curiously  and  copiously  by  John 
Fox,  that  his  industry  herein  hath  starved  the  en- 
deavors of  such  as  shall  succeed  him,  leaving  noth- 
ing for  their  pens  to  feed  upon.  *For  what  can 
the  man  do  that  cometh  after  the  king  ?  even  that 
which  hath  been  already  done,'  saith  Solomon.t 
And  Mr.  Fox  appearing  sole  emperor  in  this  sub- 
ject, all  posterity  may  despair  to  add  any  remarka- 
ble discoveries  which  have  escaped  his  observation. 
Wherefore,  to  handle  this  subject  after  him,  what 
is  it  but  to  light  a  candle  to  the  sun  ?  or  rather,  to 
borrow  a  metaphor  from  his  book,  to  kindle  one 
single  stick  to  the  burning  of  so  many  fagots. "J 

Suffice  it  then  to  say,  that  intolerance,  without 


o  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  62,  63. 
t  Eccles.  2:12. 

PurUnns.  Q 


X  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  390. 


122        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

a  gleam  of  charity,  brooded  over  England.  It  has 
been  claimed  that  cardinal  Pole,  the  cousin  of  the 
queen,  was  opposed  to  the  Sorbonne  policy  of  guid- 
ing the  erring  by  the  fagot  and  the  stake.*  If  it 
be  so,  "he  showed  the  tameness  of  his  spirit  in  this : 
that  being  against  cruel  proceedings  with  heretics, 
he  did  not  more  openly  profess  it ;  besides,  he  suf- 
fered both  the  other  bishops  to  go  on,  and  even 
in  Canterbury,  now  sequestered  in  his  hands  and 
soon  after  put  under  his  care,  he  left  the  martyrs 
to  the  cruelties  of  the  brutal  and  fierce  popish 
clergy,  "t 

The  fact  is,  that  Kome  can  only  be  consistent 
when  she  persecutes.  Three  things  force  her  to  do 
so :  she  claims  to  be  infallible ;  she  denies  salva- 
tion to  heretics ;  she  claims  the  subserviency  of 
the  civil  powers  as  the  ministers  of  her  imperious 
will. 

Consequently,  "  with  Eome  persecution  has  not 
been  an  accidental  circumstance ;  it  is  the  natural 
expression  of  her  spirit,  the  consistent  outgrowth 
of  her  principles.  Other  churches  have  fallen  into 
the  temptation  of  employing  coercion  in  spite  of 
their  system ;  but  hers  has  been  a  throne  of  iniquity 
which  *  frameth  mischief  by  a  law.'  The  Protes- 
tant has  fancied  that  he  might  persecute,  the  Eo- 
manist  was  persuaded  that  he  must  The  sword 
trembled  in  the  hands  of  the  reformer;  it  was 
grasped  with  terrible  energy  by  the  papist.  It  is 
inconsistent  for  Protestantism  to  persecute;  it  is 

m 

«  Lingard.    Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  693.        f  Burnet,  vol.  2,  p.  418. 


THE  MARIAN  EPOCH. 


123 


inconsistent  for  Kome  not  to  harry  and  bleed  and 
kill."* 

Still  this  very  reign  of  Mary  proves  persecution 
to  be  impolitic,  as  well  as  unjust  and  unchristian. 
It  did  not  choke  heresy.  On  the  contrary,  the  dis- 
senting sects  grew  more  militant — gained  ground, 
"A  sort  of  instinctive  reasoning,"  says  HaUam, 
"taught  the  people  what  the  learned  on  neither 
side  had  been  able  to  discover,  that  the  truth  of  a 
religion  begins  to  be  very  suspicious  when  it  stands 
in  need  of  prisons  and  scaffolds  to  eke  out  its  evi- 
dences. Many  are  said  to  have  become  Protes- 
tants under  Mary  who,  at  her  coming  to  the  throne, 
had  retained  the  contrary  persuasion."t 

Thus  it  should  seem  that  the  throttled  truth  still 
found  proselytes,  even  under  this  fanatic  govern- 
ment. "Be  not  deceived;  God  is  not  mocked." 
All  were  not  devils,  even  in  the  pandemonium  of 
this  black,  midnight  reign. 

o  Stoughton,  pp.  25,  26. 

f  Hallam,  Const.  Hist.  Eng.,  vol.  2,  pp.  104,  105. 


124        HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


CHAPTEE    IX. 


THE  EXILES. 


Puritanism,  born  in  the  reign  of  Edward,  was 
nursed  in  the  reign  of  Mary. 

It  will  be  remembered  that,  in  the  dawn  of  the 
Marian  persecution,  many  "good  men  and  true*' 
quitted  Britain,  self -banished  to  the  Continent.* 
Some  passed  into  France ;  some  settled  in  the 
friendly  cities  of  Flanders;  a  few  found  refuge 
under  the  hospitable  crags  of  republican  Switzer- 
land; others  sought  homes  in  the  free  towns  of 
reformed  Germany;  and  of  these  last  the  greater 
part  came  to  reside  in  Frankfort-on-tlie-Maine.f 

There  the  exiles  were  cordially  received  ;  the 
honest  burghers  vied  with  each  other  in  the  pro- 
vision of  suitable  employment ;  and  the  Huguenot 
pastor  of  a  French  refugee  church,  drawn  by  the 
tie  of  a  kindred  misfortune,  hastened  to  invite  the 
English  Protestants  to  share  the  chapel  which  the 
municipal  government  had  kindly  opened  for  their 
worship4 

This  arrangement  was  eventually  sanctioned  by 
the  city  senate  through  the  active  kindness  of  one 
of  the  senators,  and  it  was  agreed  that  the  English 
should  use  the  Huguenot  chapel  alternately  with 

*  Chapter  8,  p.  106. 

t  Troubles  at  Frankfort ;  Neale ;  Fuller ;  Burnet,  etc 
•    X  Ibid. 


THE  EXILES. 


125 


I 


the  French ;  but  to  avoid  all  occasion  for  bickering 
on  forms,  the  grant  was  accompanied  by  this  pro- 
viso, that  all  should  assent  to  the  French  doctrine 
and  ceremony,*  based  essentially  on  Calvinism. 

After  consultation,  the  English  refugees  assented 
to  these  conditions,  although  they  necessitated  a 
departure  from  their  estabhshed  ritual;  and  soon 
after  they  settled  quietly  and  happily  in  the  old 
"  White  Lady  church,"  which  had  been  originally 
a  cloister  dedicated  to  "  the  blessed  Mary  Magda- 
len."t 

The  exiles  had  arrived  in  Frankfort  in  June, 
1554.  By  the  middle  of  July  all  these  prelimina- 
ries were  arranged,  and  on  the  last  Sunday  of  the 
month  they  held  their  maiden  service.  It  was  in 
some  respects  unique.  Eesponses  were  interdicted. 
The  Litany,  surplice,  and  other  ceremonies  in  ser- 
vice and  sacraments,  were  omitted,  both  as  "  super- 
fluous and  superstitious."  Instead  of  the  English 
Confession,  another,  more  appropriate  to  their  ban- 
ishment, was  used.  After  the  Confession,  a  psalm 
in  metre  was  sung.  A  prayer  succeeded  the  hymn ; 
and  that  was  followed  by  a  sermon.  The  service 
was  concluded  by  a  general  prayer  for  aU  states, 
and  especially  for  England  ending  with  the  Lord's 
prayer,  by  a  rehearsal  of  the  old  articles  of  behef, 
by  another  hymn,  and  the  benediction.  J 

So  radical  was  the  departure  from  the  English 

0  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  407. 

t  Knox,  Hist.  Ref.    Brook,  Lives  of  the  Puritans. 

1  Troubles  at  Frankfort ;  Fuller,  etc. 


126        HISTOBY  OF  THE  PXJEITANS. 

ritual  of  tlie  refugee  congregation  of  Frankfort 
Puritans. 

It  has  been  well  said,  that  "  the  communion  of 
saints"  never  account  themselves  peaceably  pos- 
sessed of  any  happiness  until,  if  it  be  within  their 
power,  they  have  also  made  their  fellow-sufferers 
partakers  thereof.  Accordingly  the  innovating 
church  wrote  urgent  and  affectionate  letters  to  the 
neighboring  English  congregations,  inviting  all  to 
join  them  at  Frankfort  *  These  missives  were 
sent  to  Emboden,  to  Strasburg,  to  Zurich ;  and  in 
them  the  reformers  commended  their  new-mo(Jelled 
service,  as  approaching  much  closer  to  the  primitive 
form  than  did  king  Edward's  ritual.t 

The  Strasburg  divines  demurred;  the  Protes- 
tants at  Basle  exhibited  no  inclination  to  accede ; 
the  churchmen  at  Zurich  refused  to  come.  J  StiU, 
"  let  none  say  that  Frankfort  might  as  well  come  to 
Zurich  as  Zurich  to  Frankfort ;  for  Frankfort  was 
near  England,  and  more  convenient  for  receiving 
intelligence  thence  and  for  returning  it  thither. 
Besides,  all  Christendom  met  at  Frankfort  twice  a 
year,  the  vernal  and  the  autumnal  mart;  and  grant 
that  there  was  more  learning  at  Zurich,  there  were 
more  books  at  Frankfort,  with  greater  conveniences 
for  advancing  in  study.  But  chiefly  at  Frankfort 
the  congregation  enjoyed  most  ample  privileges; 
2|,nd  it  was  conceived  that  it  would  much  enure  to 
the  credit  and  comfort  of  the  English  church  if  the 

o  Tronbles  at  Frankfort ;  Fuller,  Neale,  Newell. 

t  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  68.  t  Fuller,  vol.  2,  pp.  408,  409. 


THE  EXILES. 


127 


I 


I 

I 

I 

i 

i 


I 


dispersed  handfals  of  their  exiles  were  bound  up  in 
one  sheaf,  imited  in  one  congregation,  '  where  they 
might  serve  God  in  purity  of  faith  and  integrity  of 
life,  having  both  doctrine  and  discipline  free  from 
any  mixture  of  superstition.'  "* 

Strengthened  by  these  reflections,  and  grieved, 
but  not  discouraged  by  the  equivocal  sympathy  of 
the  surrounding  EngHsh  churches,  the  Furitans  of 
Frankfort  walked  in  their  chosen  path ;  and  cast- 
ing their  eyes  towards  Geneva,  they  selected  stout 
John  Knox,  an  exile  from  Britain  like  themselves,  to 
be  their  minister.t  "Let  not  men  account  it  incon- 
gruous," says  Fuller,  "  that,  among  so  many  able 
and  eminent  English  divines,  a  Scotchman  should 
be  made  pastor  of  the  English  church,  seeing  that 
Knox's  reputed  merit  did  naturalize  him,  though  a 
foreigner,  for  any  Protestant  congregation." J 

Knox  had  hardly  been  installed  ere  a  new  diffi- 
culty arose.  Those  refugee  congregations  which 
adhered  to  the  Established  ritual  refused  to  fellow- 
ship their  non-conforming  brothers  in  the  faith.§ 
Grieved  and  anxious,  the  Puritan  congregation  for- 
warded the  Liturgy  to  Calvin  at  Geneva  for  his 
judgment.il  They  had  previously  informed  the  con- 
forming churches  at  Strasburg  and  at  Zurich,  when 
urged  to  model  their  church  exactly  after  king  Ed- 
ward's ritual,  that  they  did  make  no  slight  use  of 

•  Fuller,  vol.  2,  pp.  408,  409. 

t  Knox,  Hist.  Kef.,  p.  84.     McCrie's  Life  of  Knox,  vol.  1. 
X  Fuller,  vol  2,  p.  410. 

§  Newell,  p.  100.    Burnet,  Fuller,  Neale.    Troubles  at  Frank- 
fort II  Ibid. 


128 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


tlie  service-book,  but  that,  "  as  for  certain  unprofit- 
able ceremonies,  though  some  of  them  were  toler- 
able, yet  being  in  a  strange  country,  and  therefore 
free  to  choose,  they  could  not  submit  to  them,  and 
indeed  they  thought  it  better  that  they  should 
never  be  practised."* 

Ere  long  Calvin's  verdict  arrived  at  Frankfort. 
"In  the  Liturgy  of  England,"  said  he,  "I  see  that 
there  is  not  that  purity  which  were  to  be  desired. 
Those  imperfections  which  could  not  at  the  outset 
be  amended,  were,  since  there  was  therein  no  man- 
ifest impiety,  for  a  season  retained  and  tolerated. 
It  was  lawful  to  begin  with  such  rudiments,  or  a-he- 
ce-daries  ;  but  now  it  behooves  the  learned,  grave, 
and  godly  ministers  of  Christ  to  enterprise  further, 
and  to  set  forth  something  more  filed  from  rust, 
and  purer,  "t 

This  letter  caused  some  debate ;  but  finally  it 
was  agreed  to  retain  the  larger  portion  of  the  Es- 
tabhshed  ritual,  and  to  add  whatever  might  seem 
appropriate  to  the  fluctuating  state  of  the  refugee 
church  \X  at  the  same  time  it  was  decided  to  refer 
all  future  disputes  to  the  arbitration  of  Calvin, 
Musculus,  Martyr,  Bullinger,  and  Yiret.§ 

So  stood  affairs  at  Frankfort  when,  in  March, 
1555,  the  harmony  was  rudely  jarred  by  the  arrival 
of  Dr.  Kichard  Cox,  "  a  man  of  a  high  spirit,  of 
deep  learning,  unblamable  life,  and  of  great  credit 


«  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  68. 

t  Calvin ;  cited  in  Fuller,  vol.  %  p.  411. 

%  Knox,  Hist.  Bef.,  p.  31. 


THE  EXILES. 


129 


I 


\ 


% 


\ 


§  Ibid.,  p.  61* 


among  his  countrymen,  for  he  had  been  tutor  unto 
Edward  VL,"  but  who  had  been  exiled  under  Mary's 
rule. 

Cox  had  been  prominent  in  the  compilation  of 
the  English  service-book;*  naturally,  therefore,  he 
did  not  look  with  any  favor  on  the  Frankfort  inno- 
vations; nay,  he  determined  either  to  remould  into 
conformity,  or  to  destroy  what  he  considered  the 
mushroom  ceremonies  of  the  refugee  congregation. 

Accordingly  he  went,  accompanied  by  a  corps 
of  equally  zealous  colleagues,  one  Sunday  into  the 
"  White  Lady  church,"  and  contrary  to  the  settled 
order  of  procedure,  answered  aloud  after  the  min- 
ister.t  When  admonished,  he  rephed  that  he  should 
do  as  he  had  been  wont  to  do  in  England,  and  he 
further  declared  that  the  Frankfort  church  should 
have  the  face  of  an  English  congregation. J 

On  the  succeeding  Sunday  a  still  ruder  breach 
of  decorum  occurred.  One  of  Cox's  company  as- 
cended the  pulpit,  and  without  the  previous  consent 
or  knowledge  of  the  church,  intoned  the  entire  Lit- 
urgy, while  the  interlopers  in  the  pews  responded 
aloud.§  This  was  in  the  morning;  in  the  afternoon 
Knox  sternly  rebuked  this  insolence,  which  he  said 
it  "became  not  the  proudest  of  them  all  to  have 
attempted."!! 

Many  animosities  and  intermediate  bickerings 
between  the  two  parties  may  well  be  eimitted,  espe- 

o  Newell,  p.  101,  note.    Burnet. 

t  Troubles  at  Frankfort.    Fuller.        %  Ibid.    Newell,  p.  101. 

§  Ibid.  II  Knox,  Hist  Bef.,  p.  51. 

6* 


130 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


daily  at  one  conference,  wlierein  Cox  is  charged 
with  having  come  with  his  argument  ah  audoritate, 
Ego  volo  habere,*  Knox's  adherents  finding  them- 
selves disturbed  and  iU-used,  "got  one  voice  on 
their  side  stronger  and  louder  than  all  the  rest,  the 
authority  of  the  senate  of  Frankfort.  That  magis- 
trate who  had  befriended  the  refugees  and  procured 
them  the  chapel,  announced  that  if  the  reformed 
order  of  the  congregation  were  not  observed,  *  as 
he  had  opened  the  church  door  unto  them,  so  would 
he  shut  it  again.'  "t 

Beaten  at  fair  weapons,  the  Coilans  resorted  to 
mean  ones.  They  accused  Knox  of  high  treason 
against  the  emperor  of  Germany  in  this,  that  in  an 
English  pamphlet,  entitled,  "An  Admonition  to 
Christians,"  printed  some  years  before  in  Britain, 
he  had  affirmed  the  emperor  to  be  "no  less  an 
enemy  to  Christ  than  Nero. "J  The  senate,  alarm- 
ed— for  Frankfort  was  "an  imperial  city,  highly 
concerned  to  be  tender  of  the  emperor's  honor" — 
requested  Knox  to  quit  the  town,  which,  in  March, 
1556,  he  did,  to  the  great  grief  of  his  congregation.§ 
"Strange,"  moralizes  Fuller,  "that  words  spoken 
years  before,  in  another  land  and  language,  against 
the  emperor,  to  whom  Knox  owed  no  natural  alle- 
giance— though  since  a  casual  and  accidental  one, 
by  his  removal  into  an  imperial  city — should,  in 
this  unhappy  juncture,  be  urged  against  him  by 

o  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  412.     "By  authority,  I  will  have  it  so." 

t  Troubles  at  Frankfort,  p.  40. 

X  Tbid.    Knox,  Hist.  Eef.    McCrie,  Life  of  Knox.  §  Ibid. 


THE  EXILES. 


131 


exiles  of  his  own  religion,  even  to  no  less  than  the 
endangering  of  his  Ufe.  Such  too  often  is  the  bad- 
ness of  good  people,  that,  in  the  heat  of  passion, 
they  account  any  play  to  be  fair-play  which  tends 
to  the  overthrow  of  those  with  whom  they  contend."* 
Having  now  gotten  rid  of  the  chief  obstacle  to 
their  programme,  the  jubilant  Coxians  at  once  pro- 
ceeded to  set  up  the  service-book,  which  the  magis- 
trates permitted;  they  next  ignored  the  old  church 
officers,  and  elected  new  ones,  and  they  crowned 
their  reconstruction  by  the  appointment  of  another 

pastor.t 

The  Puritans  protested  in  vain;  and  the  suc- 
cessful party  refused  to  refer  all  difficulties  to  the 
arbitration  of  the  reformed  divines,  "  because,  be- 
ing ah'eady  possessed  of  the  power,  they  would  not 
divest  themselves  of  the  whole  to  receive  but  part 
again  from  the  courtesy  of  others.  However,  they 
lost  much  reputation  by  the  refusal ;  for  in  all  con- 
troversies, that  side  recusant  to  submit  its  claims 
to  a  fair  arbitration,  contracts  the  just  suspicion 
either  that  their  cause  is  faulty,  or  that  its  mana- 
gers are  froward  and  morose."^ 

Yet,  notwithstanding  their  determination  to  in- 
voke no  outside  decision,  the  Coxians  wrote  Calvin, 
and  urged  him  to  sanction  their  proceedings,  which 
of  course  he  refused  to  do  ;  on  the  contrary,  "after 
a  modest  excuse  for  refusing  to  meddle  in  their 
affairs,  he  told  them  that,  in  his  opinion,  they  were 


*  FuUer,  vol.  2,  p.  412. 
X  FuUer,  vol.  2,  p.  414. 


f  Troubles  at  Frankfort,  p.  62. 


132         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS; 

too  much  addicted  to  the  English  ceremonies;  nor 
could  he  see  to  what  purpose  it  was  to  burden  the 
church  with  hurtful  and  offensive  things,  when  there 
was  liberty  to  have  a  simpler,  purer  service.  He 
blamed  their  conduct  towards  Knox,  which  he  said 
was  neither  godly  nor  brotherly;  and  he  concluded 
by  urging  them  to  prevent  divisions  among  them- 
selves."* 

Yainly  did  the  great  divine  cry  peace  from  Swit- 
zerland.    "  There  was  no  peace." 

With  many  tears  the  old  congregation  quitted 
Franljfort,  and  separated,  some  tarrying  at  Basle, 
others  pressing  on  to  Geneva,  where  a  new  church 
was  formed  under  Knox,  which  "  lived  in  great  har- 
mony and  love  until  the  storm  of  persecution  blew 
over,  at  the  death  of  Mary."t  Those  who  had  acted 
this  unjust  part  at  Frankfort  did  not  find  peace 
restored  by  the  departure  of  the  "  come-outers." 
New  tares  were  sown,  and  the  church  was  fretted 
by  endless  contentions.  But  Cox,  leaving  the  strife 
unmedicined,  passed  on,  and  provided  himself  with 
a  less  expensive  abiding  place.  J 

These  troubles  were  the  earliest,  infant  cry  of 
Puritanism;  and  we  have  gone  thus  into  detail 
because  "  the  pen-knives  of  that  age  grew  into  the 
swords  of  an  older  epoch." 

When  the  Coxians  flung  after  the  dissenting 
party  the  epithet  "  schismatics,"  there  arose  a  dis- 
pute as  to  whether  that  name  could  be  applicable 


*  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  70. 

t  McCrie,  Life  of  Knox,  vol.  1.  p.  157. 


t  Ibid. 


THE  EXILES. 


133 


\ 


to  those  who,  agreeing  in  doctrine,  dissented  only 
in  superfluous  ceremonies.'^  Some  boldly  affirmed 
that  the  reformers  of  king  Edward's  reign  had  no 
thought  that  they  had  settled  definitively  the  eccle- 
siastical canons  of  the  English  church.  It  was  said 
that  the  fathers  of  the  English  Eeformation  regard- 
ed their  w^ork  as  merely  initiatory ;  and  the  opin- 
ions of  Cranmer,  Hooper,  Latimer,  and  Kidley  were 
cited  in  proof.t  The  assertion  was  openly  made 
that  these  eminent  theologians  recognized  but  two 
orders  of  clergy  ixs  jicre-divim — bishops  or  ministers, 
and  deacons  ; J  that  Hooper,  in  his  letter  to  BuUin- 
ger,  in  February,  1548,  said,  "  The  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  the  bishops  of  Eochester,  Ely,  St. 
David's,  and  Lincoln,  were  sincerely  set  on  advanc- 
ing the  purity  of  doctrine,  agreeing  in  all  things  ivith 
the  Helvetic  churches  ;"§  that  the  churches  of  Dutch, 
French,  German,  and  Italian  Protestants,  by  whom 
the  Eeformation  had  been  carried  far  beyond  Eng- 
land, were  encouraged  by  Cecil  and  by  Cranmer, 
while  the  king  granted  them  letters-patent  "  freely 
and  quietly  to  use  their  own  peculiar  ecclesiastical 
discipline,  notwithstanding  they  do  not  agree  ivith  the 
.  ites  and  ceremonies  noio  used  in  Great  Britain/'W  and 
hat  the  acts  of  the  individual  reformers  showed 
hat  their  object  was  not  to  anchor  so  near  to  Eome 
n  outward  observances,  but  to  find  harbor  at  a 
greater  distance  from  the  formulas  of  Latin  ortho- 


o  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  414. 

t  Puncliard,  vol.  2,  ch.  7,  passim. 

§  Burnet,  vol.  3,  p.  201. 


X  Ibid. 
II  Ibid. 


I    « 


134         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

doxy,  as  witness  Hooper's  position  in  the  "vest- 
ment controversy,"  and  Kidley's  injunctions  to  his 
diocese  in  1550.* 

To  crown  all,  it  was  urged  that  Martyr,  Bucer, 
Fagius,  and  Tremellius,  the  eminent  oriental  schol- 
ar, all  expressed  views  opposed  to  the  existing  Es- 
tablishment; that  Knox,  an  open  non-conformist, 
received  his  salary  as  a  royal  chaplain  till  Edward's 
death ;  that  all  these  thinkers  regarded  the  Kefor- 
mation  as  progressive ;  that  upon  their  learning  and 
judgment  great  reliance  was  placed  throughout 
king  Edward's  reign ;  and  that  they  all  advocated 
a  further  departure  from  the  state  ritual  towards 

apostolic  simplicity.! 

The  opposite  party  held  these  views  to  be  chi- 
merical, stamped  them  as  the  idle  or  malicious  tales 
of  ignorant  tradition,  and  believed,  with  a  recent 
distinguished  churchman,  that  "the  work  of  the 
reformers  was  to  restore,  not  to  destroy ;  and  that 
they  intentionally  stopped  at  that  point  at  which 
they  believed  their  object  would  be  accomplished."! 

So  early  did  the  two  great  parties  in  the  Eng- 
lish church,  the  Progressives  and  the  Conserva- 
tives, encamp  on  their  respective  theories.  Even 
in  banishment  the  champions  on  either  side  began 
to  arm. 

But  "  it  may  be  inquired  how  these  exiles  were 
maintained,  considering  the  vast  numbers  of  them, 
and  the  poverty  of  many.     God  stirred  up  the 

o  Bnmet,  vol.  3,  p.  305.  t  Newell,  p.  85. 

t  Lathbury,  pp.  120,  121. 


THE  EXILES. 


135 


I 


f 


bowels  of  the  abler  sort,  both  in  England  and  in 
those  parts  where  they  sojourned,  to  pity  and  re- 
lieve them  by  very  liberal  contributions  conveyed 
unto  them  from  time  to  time.  From  London  espe- 
cially came  often  very  large  allowances ;  till  Gar- 
diner, who  had  his  spies  everywhere,  got  know- 
ledge of  it ;  when,  by  casting  these  benefactors  into 
prison,  and  finding  means  to  impoverish  them,  that 
channel  of  charity  was  in  a  great  measure  stopped. 
After  this,  the  senators  at  Zurich,  at  the  instance 
of  Bullinger  their  superintendent,  opened  their 
treasures  to  them.  Besides,  those  great  ornaments 
of  religion  and  learning,  Calvin,  Melancthon,  Gual- 
tier,  Lavater,  and  others,  sent  them  daily  most 
comfortable  letters,  and  omitted  no  duty  of  love 
and  humanity  to  them  throughout  their  banish- 
ment. Some  of  the  persons  of  wealth  and  estate 
sent  also  their  benevolences,  among  tlie  rest  the 
duke  of  Wittemburg,  who  gave  at  one  time  to  the 
exiled  English  at  Strasburg  four  hundred  dollars, 
in  addition  to  a  larger  sum  previously  given  at 
Frankfort."^ 

But  all  did  not  subsist  on  charity.  At  Geneva, 
"  a  club  of  them"  employed  themselves  in  translat- 
ing the  Bible  into  English.t  At  Basle,  "many 
poor  scholars  made  shift  to  live  in  these  hard 
times"  by  their  peculiar  care  and  diligence  in  cor- 
recting proof  for  the  eminent  printers  of  that  city, J 

o  Strype,  Life  of  Cranmer,  vol.  1,  p.  519. 
t  Newell,  p.  103.    Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  421. 
t  Humplirey,  Life  of  Jewel,  p.  87. 


136 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THE  MAIDEN  QUEEN. 


137 


over  wbich  tlie  shadow  of  Faust's  printing-press 
seemed  to  rest. 

But  the  hours  even  of  the  dreariest  exile  will 
pass.  The  year  1558  opened  the  hospitable  conti- 
nental prison-house.  One  morning  the  news  of 
Mary's  death  flashed  over  Europe.  If  Eome  heard 
it  aghast,  the  Eeformation  heard  it  with  hope.  The 
refugees  hastened  to  lay  down  the  half-read  proof- 
sheet,  to  close  their  open  books,  and  with  many  a 
vale  they  set  out  for  home. 


CHAPTEE  X. 

THE  MAIDEN  QUEEN. 

England  awoke  from  her  nightmare  with  a  shud- 
der and  in  a  chill.  The  dizzy  terror  was  passed. 
Men  drew  a  long  breath  and  heaved  a  sigh.  Mary 
Tudor  found  few  to  regret  her.^  Her  reign  had 
been  as  disastrous  in  its  foreign  politics  as  in  its 
domestic  government.  The  people,  ominously  sul- 
len, growled  and  muttered.  The  nobles  were  dis- 
satisfied. Parliament  had  long  been  alienated  from 
the  court ;  its  members  had  marked  the  determina- 
tion of  the  queen  to  surrender  the  kingdom  at  dis- 
cretion to  Eome,  her  anxiety  to  elevate  the  clergy 
into  undue  importance,  and  the  fierceness  of  her 
bloody  faith.t 

Troubled  by  these  symptoms  of  royal  fanati- 
cism, Parliament  peered  doubtfully  into  the  por- 
tentous future ;  England  at  large  fretted  and  shud- 
dered. Consequently  the  repo]?iJ;  of  "  Bloody  Mary's  " 
death  occasioned  only  the  most  ghastly  semblance 
of  woe.     Indeed  Britain  could  hardly  restrain  a 

*  Mary  died  November  17, 1558,  in  her  forty-third  year,  and  in 
the  Bixth  year  of  her  reign.  Her  marriage  with  Philip  II.  had  no 
issue.  This  increased  the  fierceness  of  her  temper,  and  made  her 
fret  herself  into  the  grave.  "She  was  a  princess  of  severe  princi- 
ples, and  little  given  to  diversions.  She  did  not  mind  any  branch 
of  the  government  so  much  as  the  church,  being  entirely  at  the 
disposal  of  her  clergy,  and  forward  to  sanction  all  their  cruelties." 
Neale,  voL  1,  p.  75.  t  Burnet,  vol.  2,  p.  411. 


138        HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


shout  of  exultation.  The  masses,  overlooking  their 
theological  disputes,  expressed  general  and  un- 
feigned joy  that  the  sceptre  had  passed  into  the 
hands  of  Elizabeth.* 

Elizabeth's  succession  was  not  contested.  Par- 
liament chanced  to  be  in  session  on  Mary's  decease. 
Upon  being  apprized  of  that  event,  **  scarcely  an 
interval  of  regret  appeared ;  and  the  two  houses 
immediately  resounded  with  the  joyful  acclamation 
of,  *God  save  queen  Elizabeth!'  The  people,  less 
actuated  by  faction,  and  less  influenced  by  private 
views,  expressed  a  joy  still  more  general  and  hearty 
on  her  proclamation."t 

Yet,  though  not  a  ripple  stiiTed  the  placid  sea, 
the  keen  good  sense  of  the  maiden  queen  was  not 
misled.  She  knew  that  there  was  an  under-current 
of  dissent  and  hatred  which  ran  swift  and  strong. 
She  was  an  avowed  Protestant ;  Komanism  was  the 
state  religion.  She  was  known  to  favor  the  Refor- 
mation ;  the  clergy  and  the  placemen  of  her  sister's 
reign  could  not  but  be  her  foes.J 

Besides,  England  was  at  war  with  France,  and 
she  stood  with  a  bankrupt  treasury.  The  mer- 
chants on  the  Rialtos  of  the  world  refused  her 
credit.  The  British  arms,  broken  and  demoralized, 
skulked  before  the  victorious  eagles  of  the  French. 
All  those  conquests,  which  it  had  cost  the  nation 
so  much  sweat  and  blood  to  acquire,  the  dowry 
of  two  hundred  triumphant  years,  were  lost  in  less 


♦  Hume,  vol.  1,  p.  710. 

X  Lingard,  Keign  of  Elizabeth. 


t  Ibid.,  p.  712. 


n 


fr 


f 


f 


THE  MAIDEN  QUEEN. 


139 


than  half  as  many  weeks ;  while,  bitterest  mortifi- 
cation of  all,  Calais,  the  key  to  France,  had,  by  the 
negligence  of  Britain,  slipped  from  her  girdle.* 

So  gloomy  was  the  foreign  outlook,  so  wrecked 
were  the  domestic  fortunes  of  England  when  the 
youngest  daughter  of  Henry  VIII.  came  to  ascend 
her  father's  throne.  The  times  bade  her  beware ; 
the  least  false  step  might  precipitate  her  into  the 
abyss. 

Thus  circumstanced,  Elizabeth  determined  for 
the  present  to  preserve  the  cautious  statu  quo  of  the 
old  law;  religious  changes  were  adjourned;  the 
government  devoted  itself  to  finance  and  foreign 
politics.  The  Eomish  clergy  kept  their  livings ;  the 
ejected  churchmen  of  the  last  reign  were  barred 
from  their  dioceses,  and  England  still  echoed  to 
the  celebration  of  the  mass.t 

Elizabeth  stooped  to  dissemble.  The  pope  had 
pronounced  her  illegitimate  ;X  half  the  courts  of  Eu- 
rope tabooed  her  royalty  ;§  Mary  of  Scots  claimed 
the  English  crown  ||— which  the  maiden  queen  never 
forgave,  and  one  day  revenged ;  but  when  her  throne 
was  consolidated,  the  imperious  princess  meant  to 
dictate  law  not  only  to  her  island,  but  to  Christen- 
dom. 

Her  first  move  on  the  chess-board  of  pohtics 
was  wise.   She  had  been  not  only  ill-used,  but  often 


*  Fuller,  Lingard,  etc. 

t  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  77;  Burnet,  Collier. 

t  Collier,  Church  Hist,  vol.  2. 

II  Hallam,  Cons.  Hist. ;  Neale,  Fuller. 


§  Ibid. 


140         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

in  peril  of  her  life,  while  Mary  ruled.  The  counsel- 
lors of  that  policy  were  now  in  her  hands,  yet  she 
forgave  them,  and  buried  the  past  in  oblivion.* 
This  was  followed  by  a  proclamation  forbidding 
innovations,  and  legalizing  the  existing  state  of 
affairs  until  the  convention  of  Parliament.t 

In  January,  1558,  Parliament  assembled  at  West- 
minster. It  was  stoutly  Protestant,  and  cordially 
favored  a  reform.J  The  religious  enactments  of 
Mary's  reign  were  repealed ;  the  laws  of  Henry 
VIII.  against  the  see  of  Eome  were  dug  from  the 
grave  and  placed  again  upon  the  statute-book ;  the 
acts  of  Edward  VI.  were  resuscitated  and  reen- 
acted.§ 

The  title  of  supreme  head  "  of  the  church  of 
England "  was  omitted  in  all  these  acts,  as  beinjr 
inappropriate,  since  "Christ  alone  was  the  supreme 
Sovereign  of  the  church  ;"||  but  all  loyal  English- 
men were  tied  by  oath  to  "  acknowledge  the  queen 
to  be  the  only  and  supreme  governor  of  her  king- 
doms in  all  matters  and  causes,  as  well  spiritual  as 
temporal,  all  foreign  princes  and  protestants  being 
quite  excluded  from  taking  cognizance  of  causes 
within  her  dominions."! 

The  ordinary  convocation  accompanied  this  par- 
liament, but  it  "was  very  small  and  silent;  for  as 
it  is  observed  in  nature,  when  one  twin  is  of  an  un- 

•  Hume,  vol.  1,  p.  710.  f  Ibid. 

t  Newell,  p.  114 ;  Burnet ;  Strype,  etc. 

§  Statutes  of  the  Realm,  1  Elizabeth. 

11  Rainolds  agamst  Hart,  p.  3a        IT  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  UL 


0 

n 


■A^ 


lU     ^- 


¥ 


1 1  > 


« 


ri 


THE  MAIDEN  QUEEN.  141 

usual  strength  and  bigness,  the  other,  his  partner 
born  with  him,  is  weak  and  dwindled  away;  so 
here,  this  parliament  being  very  active  in  matters 
of  religion,  the  convocation,  youuger  brother  there- 
to, was  little  employed  and  less  regarded."* 

It  was  esteemed  important  that  the  papists  who 
were  still  in  possession  of  the  episcopal  sees  should 
be  verbally  vanquished  ere  being  ejected.  Accord- 
ingly a  disputation  was  appointed  to  take  place, 
before  the  queen's  privy-council  and  both  houses 
of  Parliament,  between  the  champions  of  the  two 
creeds,  each  side  to  be  defended  by  nine  de- 
baters, f 

This  debate  resulted  in  more  noise  than  fruit ; 
gave  birth  to  more  passion  than  reason,  more  cavils 
than  argument. t  Still  there  was  something  gained; 
for  the  Komanists,  finding  that  the  popular  verdict 
was  against  them,  broke  off  the  dispute  on  the  plea 
that  their  cause  ought  not  to  be  submitted  to  such 
an  arbitration.!  But  in  this  they  condemned  them- 
selves, for  they  had  not  scrupled  to  debate  with 

•  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  443. 

t  Collier,  vol.  2,  book  6.  Their  names  were,  White,  bishop  of 
Winchester ;  Bayn,  bishop  of  Litchfield ;  Scott,  bishop  of  Ches- 
ter ;  Wilson,  bishop  of  Lincoln ;  Cole,  dean  of  St.  Paul's ;  Horps- 
field,  archdeacon  of  Canterbury ;  Chadsey,  prebendary  of  St 
Paul's ;  Langdale,  archdeacon  of  i^^wis,  on  the  papist  side ;  and 
Story,  late  bishop  of  Chichester ;  Cox,  late  dean  of  Westminster  ; 
Hem,  late  dean  of  Durham  ;  Elmar,  late  archdeacon  of  Stow,  and 
Messrs.  Whitehead,  Grinal,  Guest,  and  Jewel,  on  the  Protestant 
Bide.  Collier  gives  the  speeches  at  great  length,  vol.  2,  book  6, 
part  2.  •  X  Puller,  vol.  2,  p.  447. 

§  Collier,  vol.  2,  book  6 ;  Neale,  Burnet. 


140         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


in  peril  of  her  life,  while  Mary  ruled.  The  counsel- 
lors of  that  policy  were  now  in  her  hands,  yet  she 
forgave  them,  and  buried  the  past  in  oblivion.* 
This  was  followed  by  a  proclamation  forbidding 
innovations,  and  legalizing  the  existing  state  of 
affairs  until  the  convention  of  Parliament.t 

In  January,  1558,  Parliament  assembled  at  West- 
minster. It  was  stoutly  Protestant,  and  cordially 
favored  a  reform.^  The  religious  enactments  of 
Mary's  reign  were  repealed ;  the  laws  of  Henry 
YIII.  against  the  see  of  Eome  were  dug  from  the 
grave  and  placed  again  upon  the  statute-book ;  the 
acts  of  Edward  VL  were  resuscitated  and  reen- 
acted.§ 

The  title  of  supreme  head  "  of  the  church  of 
England "  was  omitted  in  all  these  acts,  as  being 
inappropriate,  since  "  Christ  alone  was  the  supreme 
Sovereign  of  the  church  ;"||  but  all  loyal  English- 
men were  tied  by  oath  to  "  acknowledge  the  queen 
to  be  the  only  and  supreme  governor  of  her  king- 
doms in  all  matters  and  causes,  as  well  spiritual  as 
temporal,  all  foreign  princes  and  protestants  being 
quite  excluded  from  taking  cognizance  of  causes 
within  her  dominions."! 

The  ordinary  convocation  accompanied  this  par- 
liament, but  it  "  was  very  small  and  silent ;  for  as 
it  is  observed  in  nature,  when  one  twin  is  of  an  un- 


*  Hume,  vol.  1,  p.  710.  f  Ibid. 

X  Newell,  p.  114 ;  Burnet ;  Strype,  etc. 

§  Statutes  of  the  Realm,  1  Elizabeth. 

II  Eainolds  against  Hart,  p.  3&        H  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  441. 


THE  MAIDEN  QUEEN. 


141 


^H 


usual  strength  and  bigness,  the  other,  his  partner 
born  with  him,  is  weak  and  dwindled  away;  so 
here,  this  parliament  being  very  active  in  matters 
of  religion,  the  convocation,  younger  brother  there- 
to, was  little  employed  and  less  regarded."* 

It  was  esteemed  important  that  the  papists  who 
were  still  in  possession  of  the  episcopal  sees  should 
be  verbally  vanquished  ere  being  ejected.  Accord- 
ingly a  disputation  was  appointed  to  take  place, 
before  the  queen's  privy-council  and  both  houses 
of  Parliament,  between  the  champions  of  the  two 
creeds,  each  side  to  be  defended  by  nine  de- 
baters, t 

This  debate  resulted  in  more  noise  than  fruit ; 
gave  birth  to  more  passion  than  reason,  more  cavils 
than  argument.^  Still  there  was  something  gained; 
for  the  Eomanists,  finding  that  the  popular  verdict 
was  against  them,  broke  off  the  dispute  on  the  plea 
that  their  cause  ought  not  to  be  submitted  to  such 
an  arbitration.!  But  in  this  they  condemned  them- 
selves, for  they  had  not  scrupled  to  debate  with 


*  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  443. 

f  Collier,  vol.  2,  book  6.  Their  names  were,  White,  bishop  of 
Winchester ;  Bayn,  bishop  of  Litchfield ;  Scott,  bishop  of  Ches- 
ter ;  Wilson,  bishop  of  Lincoln  ;  Cole,  dean  of  St.  Paul's ;  Horps- 
field,  archdeacon  of  Canterbury;  Chadsey,  prebendary  of  St 
Paul's ;  Langdale,  archdeacon  of  Lewis,  on  the  papist  side ;  and 
Story,  late  bishop  of  Chichester ;  Cox,  late  dean  of  Westminster  ; 
Hem,  late  dean  of  Durham  ;  Elmar,  late  archdeacon  of  Stow,  and 
Messrs.  Whitehead,  Grinal,  Guest,  and  Jewel,  on  the  Protestant 
side.  Collier  gives  the  speeches  at  great  length,  vol.  2,  book  6, 
part  2.  i  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  447. 

§  Collier,  vol.  2,  book  6 ;  Neale,  Burnet. 


142        HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

Cranmer,  Eidley,  and  Latimer  in  the  preceding 
reign,  when  the  verdict  was  assured  to  them  *  This 
was  now  remembered ;  and  it  was  concluded  that, 
since  they  had  quitted  the  arena,  their  cause  must 
be  clearly  indefensible— that  "  they  only  loved  to 
have  syllogisms  in  their  mouths  when  they  had 
swords  in  their  hands." 

The  beaten  Eomanists  were  now  commanded  to 
take  the  oath  of  supremacy.!  This  the  larger  part 
did  4  those  who  refused  were  summarily  ejected 
from  their  livings,  and  several  of  the  more  promi- 
nent were  imprisoned.  Bonner  was  thrust  into  the 
Marshalsea,  "a  jail  being  conceived  the  safest  place 
in  which  to  secure  him  from  the  people's  fury,  every 
hand  itching  to  give  a  good  squeeze  to  that  sponf^e 
of  blood."§ 

So  much  being  gained,  it  came  now  to  be  con- 
sidered essential  to  secure  uniformity  of  faith  in 
England;  for  the  Elizabethan  epoch,  grown  no  wiser 
in  the  lapse  of  time,  was  just  as  eager  to  mutter 
that  shibboleth  as  the  era  of  Edward  or  the  age  of 
Henry. 

There  now  existed  more  perceptibly  than  ever, 
since  the  influx  of  the  continental  exiles,  a  large' 
and  influential  party  in  England  in  favor  of  the 
service  and  discipHne  of  the  Genevan  and  Lutheran 
churches.  They  held  the  continental  model  to  be 
purer  and  more  nearly  in  accord  with  the  primitive 
worship.    These  reformers  began  at  this  time  to  be 

•  I  ^^^^^  8,  p.  no.        •  t  Biimet,  vol.  2. 

t  Newell,  p.  116.  §  FuUer. 


I 


THE  MAIDEN  QUEEN. 


143 


!\ ' 


J  N 


styled  Puritans,  because  they  urged  the  establish- 
ment of  a  purer  ecclesiasticism.* 

Opposed  to  the  Puritans  was  another  large 
party  who  were  zealous  for  the  service-book  of 
Edward  VI. ;  who  desired  to  divorce  the  English 
church  from  Rome  only  upon  doctrinal  points ; 
who  held  rites  and  ceremonies  to  be  indifferent, 
but  who  preferred  those  of  the  holy  see  because 
they  were  venerable  and  striking,  and  because  old 
associations  hallowed  them  in  the  hearts  of  the 

people.t 

These  parties  agreed  exactly  in  doctrine ;  they 

only  quarrelled  over  forms. 

But  this  may  be  said  for  the  Puritans,  that 
while  their  opponents  held  the  ceremonies  to  be 
non-essential,  tJiey  considered  them  to  be  of  vast  im- 
portance ;  for  they  bridged  the  chasm  which  yawn- 
ed between  Rome  and  the  Reformation.  Ignorant 
men,  dazzled  by  the  similarity  in  discipline,  might 
not  clearly  perceive  the  radical  difference  in  spirit ; 
wedded  to  one  superstition,  this  might  breed  oth- 
ers. It  was  best  to.fx  a  gulf  between  the  island 
and  the  Vatican.  As  Protestantism  was  primitive 
in  its  creed,  so  ought  it  to  be  in  its  discipline. 

"  But  the  queen  inherited  the  spirit  of  her  father, 
and  affected  great  magnificence  in  her  devotions  as 
well  as  in  her  court.    She  was  fond  of  many  of  the 

*  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  86.  "Such  as  refused  to  conform  and  sub- 
scribe to  the  Liturgy,  ceremonies,  and  discipline  of  the  church, 
were  branded  by  the  bishops  with  the  odious  name  of  Puritaks." 
Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  474.  t  Ibid. 


} 


14:4        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

old  rites  and  ceremonies  in  which  she  had  been 
educated.  She  thought  that  her  brother  had  strip- 
ped religion  of  too  many  of  its  ornaments— made 
the  doctrines  of  the  church  too  narrow  on  some 
points.  It  was  therefore  with  difficulty  that  she 
was  prevailed  on  to  go  even  to  the  full  length  of 
king  Edward's  reformation;"  it  was  plain  that  she 
never  would  smile  upon  Puritanism. 

One  of  Elizabeth's  earliest  acts  was  to  empower 
a  committee  of  divines  to  revise  the  Liturgy.  Sub- 
stantially it  was  left  unchanged,  but  some  altera- 
tions were  introduced  to  render  the  service  more 
acceptable  to  the  papal  party.*  Then  the  same 
parliament  which  had  passed  the  act  of  supremacy, 
now  placed  upon  the  statute-book  the  twin  law  of 
.  uniformity.t 

It  was  a  clause  of  this  statute  which  gave  birth 
to  those  famous  courts  of  High  Commission  and 
"  Star-chamber,"  which  make  so  prominent  a  figure 
in  the  history  of  a  hundred  years.  The  first  of 
these  tribunals  possessed  the  authority  which 
Henry  YIIL  had  lodged  in  the  single  person  of 
Lord  Cromwell,  "to  visit,  reform,  redress,  order, 
correct,  and  amend  all  errors,  heresies,  schisms, 
abuses,  contempts,  offences,  and  enormities  what- 
soever."J 

We  shall  discover  how  pregnant  with  evil  this 
arbitrary  court  became.      Standing  without   and 

o  Collier,  vol.  2. 

t  Statutes,  1  Elizabeth.    Camden,  vol.  2,  p.  372.    D'Ewea. 

X  Ibid.     Lingard,  vol.  7. 


THE  MAIDEN  QUEEN. 


145 


I 


I 


above  the  common  law,*  calling  in  no  intervention 
of  juries,t  alien  to  the  spirit  of  the  English  Consti- 
tution,t  irresponsible,  stupendous,  ominous,  an  in- 
carnate fraud,  this  misshapen  colossus  of  the  law 
sported  from  the  very  outset  in  the  most  wanton 
acts  of  tyranny  which  no  tribunal  was  empowered 
to  curb. 

Having  now  gotten  the  law  settled  and  the 
courts  arranged,  the  government  set  itself  to  en- 
force conformity.  "Upon  this  fatal  rock  of  uni- 
formity in  things  merely  indifferent,  at  least  in  the 
opinion  of  the  imposers,"  says  Neale,  "was  the 
peace  of  the  church  of  England  split.  The  pre- 
tence was  decency  and  order ;  but  it  seems  a  little 
strange  that  uniformity  should  be  necessary  to  the 
decent  worship  of  God,  when  in  most  other  things 
there  is  a  greater  beauty  in  variety.  It  is  not  nec- 
essary to  a  decent  dress  that  men's  clothes  should 
be  all  of  the  same  color  and  fashion ;  nor  would 
there  be  any  indecorum  or  disorder  if  in  one  con- 
gregation the  sacrament  should  be  administered 
kneeling,  in  another  sitting ,  and  in  a  third  standing; 
or  if  in  one  and  the  same  congregation  the  minister 
was  at  liberty  to  read  prayers  either  in  a  black 
gown  or  in  a  surplice.  The  rigorous  pressure  of 
this  act  was  the  occasion  of  all  the  mischiefs  which 
befell  the  church  for  above  eighty  years.  What 
good  end  could  it  answer  to  press  men  into  the  use 
of  a  service  without  convincing  their  minds  of  its 


o  Macauley,  Hist.  Eng. 
J  Hallam,  Const.  Hist. 


t  See  the  body  of  the  act 


roi'Uant. 


146         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

propriety  ?  If  there  must  be  one  established  form, 
there  should  certainly  be  an  indulgence  to  tender 
consciences.  When  there  was  a  difference  in  the 
church  of  the  Eomans  about  eating  flesh  and  ob- 
serving festivals,  th,e  apostle  did  not  pinch  them 
with  an  act  of  uniformity,  but  allowed  a  latitude.* 
Had  the  reformers  followed  this  apostolic  prece- 
dent, the  church  of  England  would  have  made  a 
still  more  glorious  figure  in  the  Protestant  world."t 

In  1559  the  vacant  sees  were  filled  by  Protes- 
tants ;t  Parker  was  preferred  to  the  archiepiscopal 
see  of  Canterbury,  and  the  ceremony  was  performed 
without  gloves  or  sandals,  rings  or  slippers,  mitre 
or  pall;  even  the  episcopal  vestments  were  omit- 
ted,§  and  the  consecration  was  by  hands  only. 
Strange  that  the  archbishop  should  be  satisfied 
with  this  in  his  own  case,  and  yet  be  so  zealous  to 
impose  the  obnoxious  garments  upon  the  Puritans.il 
All  the  new  bishops  were  confirmed  in  their  dioce- 
san dignities  by  an  act  of  Parliament.! 

And  now  Elizabeth's  government,  civil  and  ec- 
clesiastical, had  "settled  down  into  fixed  ways."  It 
began  to  dictate ;  it  assumed  to  control. 

Just  here  it  becomes  important  to  familiarize 
ourselves  with  the  salient  features  of  agreement 
and  disagreement  between  the  rising  parties  of  the 
Conformists  and  the  Puritans  in  the   church  of 


o  Eomans  14  :  5. 

t  Fuller,  vol.  2. 

il  Camden,  Neale,  D'Ewes. 

V  Fuller,  Burnet,  Neale. 


t  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  87,  Sa 
§  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  89. 


THE  MAIDEN  QUEEN.  147 

England.      These  Neale  has  admirably  grouped, 
and  we  cite  his  resume  : 

"  The  court  reformers  believed  that  every  prince 
had  authority  to  correct  aU  abuses  of  doctrine  and 
worship  within  his  own  territories.  Actuated  by 
this  principle.  Parliament  submitted  the  consciences 
and  religion  of  the  whole  nation  to  the  disposal  of 
the  king,  and  in  case  of  a  minority,  to  his  council ; 
so  that  the  monarch  was  sole  reformer,  and  might 
model  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  church  as 
he  pleased,  provided  his  injunctions  did  not  ex- 
pressly contradict  the  statute  law  of  the  realm. 

"  The  Puritans  disowned  all  foreign  jurisdiction 
over  the  church  equally  with  the  court,  but  thev 
could  not  admit  of  that  extensive  power  which  the 
crown  claimed  by  the  supremacy,  apprehending  it 
to  be  unreasonable  that  the  religion  of  a  state 
should  be  at  the  disposal  of  a  single  lay-person. 
However,  they  took  the  oath,  with  the  queen's  ex- 
planation that  it  only  restored  to  her  majesty  the 
ancient  and  natural  rights  of  sovereign  princes  over 
their  own  subjects. 

"  It  was  admitted  by  the  court  reformers  that 
the  church  of  Kome  was  a  true  church,  though  cor- 
rupt in  many  points  of  doctrine  and  government ; 
that  her  ministrations  were  valid,  and  that  the  pope 
was  a  true  bishop  of  Kome,  though  not  of  the  uni- 
versal church.  It  was  thought  necessary  by  some 
to  maintain  this,  since  their  bishops  thus  derived 
their  succession  from  the  apostles. 

"  But  the  Puritans  affirmed  the  pope  to  be  an- 


148 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 


tichrist,  the  cliurcli  of  Koijie  to  be  no  church,  and 
her  ministrations  to  be  superstitious  and  idolatrous ; 
they  renounced  her  communion,  and  dared  not  risk 
the  validity  of  their  ordinations  upon  an  uninter- 
rupted line  of  succession  from  the  apostles  through 
their  hands. 

"  It  was  agieed  by  all  that  the  Holy  Scrip tmes 
were  a  perfect  rule  of  faith ;  but  the  court  reform- 
ers did  not  allow  them  to  be  a  standard  of  disci- 
pline or  church  government,  affirming  that  the  Sav- 
iour and  his  apostles  left  it  to  the  discretion  of  the 
civil  magistrate,  in  those  places  where  Christianity 
should  obtain,  to  accommodate  the  government  of 
the  church  to  the  policy  of  the  state. 

"  The  Puritans  held  the  Scriptures  to  be  a  stand- 
ard of  discipline  as  well  as  doctrine,  or  at  least,  they 
thought  that  nothing  should  be  imposed  as  neces- 
sary which  was  not  expressly  contained  in  Holy 
Writ,  or  derived  from  it  by  inevitable  sequence. 
And  if  it  could  be  proved  that  all  things  necessary 
to  the  government  of  the  church  could  not  be  de- 
duced from  Scripture,  they  maintained  that  the  dis- 
cretionary power  was  not  vested  in  the  civil  magisr 
trate,  but  in  the  spiritual  officers  of  the  church.* 

"  The  court  reformers  maintained  that  the  prac- 
tice of  the  primitive  church,  during  the  first  four  or 
five  Christian  centuries,  was  a  proper  standard  of 
church  government,  and  in  some  respects  better 

<»  From  this  it  should  seem  that  the  Puritans  thought  that  the 
civil  magistrate  might  properly  claim  jurisdiction  over  all  matters 
involving  manifest  breaches  of  the  Scripture  discipline. 


THE  MAIDEN  QUEEN. 


149 


I 


than  that  of  the  apostles,  which  was  only  accom- 
modated to  the  infancy  of  the  church  while  it  was 
under  persecution,  whereas  theirs  was  suited  to  the 
grandeur  of  a  national  establishment.  Therefore 
they  only  pared  off  the  latter  corruptions  of  the 
papacy,  from  the  time  the  pope  usurped  the  title  of 
universal  bishop,  and  left  those  institutions  stand- 
ing which  they  could  trace  higher,  as  archbishops, 
metropolitans,  archdeacons,  suffragans,  rural  deans, 
which  were  not  known  in  the  apostolic  age,  nor  in 
those  which  immediately  succeeded  it. 

"  But  the  Puritans  were  for  admitting  no  church 
officers  or  ordinances  but  such  as  are  appointed  in 
Scripture.  They  apprehended  that  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment ordained  by  the  apostles  was  theocratic, 
according  to  the  constitution  of  the  Jewish  sanhe- 
drim, and  was  designed  as  a  pattern  for  the  church- 
es of  after  ages,  not  to  be  departed  from  in  its  main 
features  ;  and  therefore  they  paid  no  regard  to  the 
customs  of  the  papacy,  or  the  practice  of  the  ear- 
lier ages  of  Christianity,  except  in  so  far  as  these 
corresponded  with  the  Scriptures. 

"The  court  reformers  maintained  that  things 
indifferent  in  their  own  nature,  which  are  neither 
commanded  nor  forbidden  in  the  Scriptures,  such 
as  rites,  ceremonies,  habits,  might  be  settled,  de- 
termined, and  made  necessary  by  the  command  of 
the  civil  magistrate ;  and  that  in  such  cases  it  was 
the  indispensable  duty  of  good  citizens  to  observe 
them. 

"  The  Puritans  insisted  that  those  things  which 


150        HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 

CLrist  had  left  indifferent,  ought  not  to  be  made 
necessary  by  human  laws.  They  affirmed  that  if 
the  magistrate  might  impose  things  indifferent,  and 
make  them  necessary  in  the  service  of  God,  he 
might  dress  up  religion  in  any  shape,  and  instead 
of  one  ceremony,  he  might  load  it  with  a  hundred. 
Besides,  it  was  urged  that  such  rites  and  ceremo- 
nies as  had  been  abused  to  idolatry,  and  tended  to 
lead  men  back  to  popery,  were  no  longer  indiffer- 
ent, but  were  to  be  rejected  as  unlawful. 

"  Both  Puritan  and  Conformist  agreed  too  well 
in  asserting  the  necessity  of  uniformity  in  public 
worship,  and  of  using  the  sword  of  the  magistrate 
for  the  support  and  defence  of  their  principles,  of 
which  they  both  made  an  ill  use  whenever  they 
could  grasp  the  power  in  their  hands.  The  stand- 
ard of  uniformity,  according  to  one,  was  the  queen's 
supremacy  and  the  statute  law ;  according  to  the 
other,  the  decrees  of  provincial  and  national  syn- 
ods, allowed  and  enforced  by  the  civil  magistrate. 
Neither  party  admitted  that  liberty  of  conscience, 
which  is  every  man's  right."* 

Such  were  the  respective  tenets  of  the  Conform- 
ist and  the  Puritan  parties.  Neither  made  broad 
its  phylactery,  and  inscribed  thereon  the  golden 
rule  of  TOLERATION.  Neither  had  yet  grown  wise 
enough  to  dare  trust  Justice.  Neither  maintained 
"  the  liberty  of  the  children  of  God." 

A  swollen  establishment  on  one  side  cried,  Con- 
form !   Doubting  consciences  on  the  other  side  said, 

•  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  90-92. 


THE  MAIDEN  QUEEN. 


151 


i 


No ;  and  then  struggled  to  acquire  power,  that  they 
might,  in  their  turn,  play  Sir  Omnipotent,  and  dra- 
goon churchmen  into  conformity  with  their  idea. 
To  say  "  toleration"  in  that  age,  was  like  hallooing 
in  the  midst  of  the  avalanches.  Still,  the  tendency 
of  Puritanism  was  towards  democracy.  The  cour- 
tiers recognized  this,  and  perhaps  th^t  was  one  rea- 
son why  Elizabeth  so  rudely  curbed  it.  The  Puri- 
tans believed  in  God;  they  also  believed  in  the 
people.  They  disliked  caste,  Puritanism  was  the 
outgrowth  of  an  interior  life,  the  protest  of  a  hun- 
gry conscience  against  dead  forms ;  it  was  the  in- 
surrection of  the  soul  against  the  body. 


i 


/ 


152 


HISTORY  OP  THE  PUBITANS. 


CHAPTEK  XI. 

STAR. CHAMBER  DECREES. 

The  sheet-anchor  of  peaceful  faith  is  toleration. 
Civil  and  religious  liberty,  born  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, have  at  length  won  recognition.  The  strug- 
gle of  eighteen  hundred  years  touches  its  climax  in 
a  proclamation  of  divorcement  between  church  and 
state. 

In  the  United  States  we  have  placed  two  prin- 
ciples in  our  fundamental  law  : 

Civil  government  is  the  protector  of  life,  liberty 
and  property.  It  is  the  guaranty  of  political  rights.' 
Is  a  man  wronged  in  person  or  in  estate?  there  are 
the  courts.  It  may  not  meddle  with  religious  ten- 
ets, unless  these  breed  gross  acts  of  outward  immo- 
rality ;  it  cannot  enforce  a  creed.  Its  single  relig- 
ious duty  is  to  insure  toleration.  The  jurisdiction 
of  the  state  is  merely  political. 

The  kingdom  of  God  is  "  not  of  this  world." 
Therefore  the  jurisdiction  of  the  church  is  purely 
spiritual.  Her  ordinances  are  spiritual ;  so  ought 
her  weapons  to  be.  Her  sword  is  Scripture,  and 
her  shield  is  reason.  The  pillars  and  the  waUs  of 
her  temple  are  exhortations,  admonitions,  reproofs. 
But  the  church  may  not  dictate  through  civil  pen- 
alties. She  is  tied  to  her  functions  precisely  as  the 
state  IS  to  its  jurisdiction.  The  breakers  of  civU 
laws  may  be  punished  by  weapons  which  affect  their 


1 


STAR-CHAMBEE  DECBEES.  153 

liberty  and  their  property ;  the  breakers  of  ecclesi- 
astical canons  may  be  disciplined  by  censure,  or  by 
the  withdrawal  of  Christian  fellowship.  The  courts 
of  law  take  cognizance  of  the  first  species  of  offence  • 
the  court  of  conscience  takes  cognizance  of  the  other' 
A  citizen  does  not  necessarily  lose  his  civil  rights 
when  he  changes  his  creed,  or  when  he  disqualifies 
himself  for  church-membership. 

These  two  distinctive  principles  our  ancestors 
could  not  understand.    No  party  in  the  sixteenth 
century  rose  to  the  level  of  defending  them.    Not 
the  papist,  because  his  faith  necessarily  required 
intolerance ;  not  the  conformist,  because  he  upheld 
the  right  of  the  government  to  dictate  uniformity 
even  in  non-essential  things ;  not  the  Puritan,  be- 
cause he  believed  that  the  civil  magistrate  possess- 
ed the  power  to  enforce  whatever  was  agreeable 
to  the  Scripture  text.    Had  these  principles  pre- 
vailed at  the  Keformation,  truth  and  charity  would 
have  exorcised  the  spirit  of  discord,  and  there  would 
have  been  no  gi-ound  for  the  unhappy  quarrel  which 
eventually  expanded  from  arguments  into  swords. 

History  teaches  by  example ;  and  in  the  lurid 
light  of  such  a.  past,  we  may  read  at  once  a  warn- 
ing and  a  prophecy. 

But  Elizabeth  was  tormented  by  no  scruples. 
She  assumed  the  power,  if  she  had  it  not,  to  ran- 
sack consciences.  She  was  prouder  of  her  ecclesi- 
astical supremacy  than  of  all  the  rest  of  her  royal 
prerogatives  heaped  together  ;♦  and  her  imperious 

•  Stowell,  p.  122.    Neale.    CoUicr,  vol.  2,  book  6. 

7* 


154        HISTOBY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 

temper  could  ill  brook  contradiction  in  tlie  realm  of 
morals.     Consequently  when  she  discovered  that, 
despite  the  statute  of  uniformity,  the  Puritans  "re^ 
fused  to  bow  the  knee  to  Baal,"  and  that  in  their 
contumacy  they  were  favored  in  great  measure  by 
her  bishops*  and  by  the  chief  members  of  her  own 
council-by  Leicester,  by  Walsingham,  by  the  lord 
keeper  Bacon,  and  by  Knollys,  whom  Strype,  with 
a  spice  of  sarcasm,  styles  "  the  Puritan's  chief  in- 
strument "t— when  aU  this  came  to  the  ears  of  the 
impetuous  princess,  her  rage  bubbled  over  and  blis- 
tered the  offenders.     "  S'death,  sirs,"  cried  Eliza- 
beth, "  am  I  to  be  silent  and  easv  while  my  very 
officers  wink  at  impudent  puritanical  innovations 
which  sap  the  foundations  of  the  church  ?"     The 
aroused  queen  then  stirred  Parker,  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  to  invoke  the  rigors  of  the  law  against 
all  non-conformists;    and  the  frightened  prelate 
dropping  the  policy  of  delay,  launched  upon  Pu- 
ritanism the  penalties  of  suspension,  deprivation, 
sequestration,  excommunication,  and  whatever  oth- 
er pains  might  from  time  to  time  seem  meet  to  the 
Star-chamber  court.J 

The  ensuing  persecution  is  rich  in  its  record  of 
steadfast  devotion  and  Christian  suffering.  Hun- 
dreds bowed  meekly  to  ejectment  from  their  hvings 
and  to  cruel  imprisonment,§  confident  that  physical 

♦  Strype,  Annals,  vol.  1,  p.  II7. 

t  Strype,  Life  of  Parker,  p.  152,  and  on. 

t  Ibid.,  vol.  1,  p.  309. 

§  Hopkins,  vol.  1,  p.  234.    Soames,  pp.  29,  30. 


STAK-CHAMBER  DECREES. 


155 


ills  might  be  medicined,  but  aware  that  no  human 
leech  could  cure  the  hurt  of  an  undone  conscience. 
Still,  in  spite  of  his  utmost  exertions,  archbishop 
Parker  discovered  that  a  dozen  rushed  to  occupy 
the  post  of  every  soldier  whom  he  disarmed.*    He 
was  also  much  embarrassed  by  the  lukewarmness  of 
his  fellow-bishops  and  of  the  queen's  council.     "  If 
you  remedy  it  not  by  letter,"  wrote  Parker  to  the 
celebrated  Cecil,  Lord  Burleigh,  "I  will  no  more 
strive  against  the  stream,  fume  or  chide  who  will."t 
London  was  at  this  time  the  Gibraltar  of  Puri- 
tanism 'jX    and   the    non-conformist   clergy   of   the 
metropolis  were  enlightened,  determined,  conscien- 
tious, and  eminently  learned  men.§    Elizabeth,  pro- 
voked that  Puritanism  should  be  preached  under 
the  very  shadow  of  her  throne,  nay,  muttered  in 
every  corridor  of  her  palace,  issued  another  proc- 
lamation in  1565,  peremptorily  requiring  uniform- 
ity ;  and  under  this,  a  number  of  the  offending  min- 
isters were  cited  before  Star-chamber  commission- 
ers, forbidden  to  utter  a  word  in  defence  of  their 
action,  and  called  on  to  choose  instantly  between 
suspension  aud  conformity.     Thirty  refused  to  sub- 
scribe, repeating  the  words  of  the  apostles,  "  Wheth- 
er it  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God  to  hearken  unto 
you  rather  than  unto  God,  judge  ye."     The  others 
submitted  under  protest,  crying  out  as  they  quitted 
the  court,  "  We  are  killed,  we  are  killed  in  the  soul 

*  Hopkins,  vol.  1,  p.  234.     Soames,  pp.  29,  30. 

t  Strype,  life  of  Parker,  vol.  1,  p.  318. 

X  Ibid.,  pp.  423,  427.  §  Newell,  p.  121. 


156 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


of  our  souls  for  this  pollution  of  ours ;  for  that  we 
cannot  practise  our  holy  ministry  in  the  singleness 
of  our  hearts."* 

But  the  desideratum  was  outward  conformity, 
not  honesty  of  conviction;  and  in  this  hunt  the 
wail  of  outraged  consciences  was  Httle  heeded.  A 
stringent  oath,  binding  the  taker  to  unquestioning 
and  patient  obedience  to  the  commands  of  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  authorities,  was  framed,  and  this 
all  clergymen  were  required  to  take  before  the  cure 
of  souls  should  be  conferred  upon  them.f  In  every 
parish  a  bureau  of  spies  was  established,  with  or- 
ders to  report  at  stated  intervals  to  the  Star-cham- 
ber court 4  It  was  customary  at  that  time  for  the 
archiepiscopal  see  to  issue  licences  to  the  clergy. 
Without  this  authority,  ministers  might  not  preach. 
Now  all  old  licences  were  cancelled ;  preachers  were 
commanded  to  provide  themselves  with  new  ones ; 
and  in  these  a  clause  was  inserted  which  bound  the 
holder  to  submit  to  the  control  of  his  ecclesiastical 
superiors.§ 

This  done,  Elizabeth  smoothed  her  ruffles,  smil- 
ed complacently,  cried,  "Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephe- 
sians,"  and  imagined  that  Puritanism  had  met  both 
the  first  death  and  the  last.  But  alas,  non-conform- 
ity "  would  not  down  at  her  bidding."  When  she 
thought  all  avenues  to  the  parish  pulpits  blocked 


r 


i 


STAB-CHAMBER  DECREES. 


157 


up,  lo,  one  which  might  not  be  barred  was  still  open. 
By  a  grant  originally  conferred  by  Pope  Alexander 
YI.  and  confirmed  by  Elizabeth,  the  university  of 
Cambridge  had  the  right  to  license  yearly  twelve 
ministers.  To  the  validity  of  the  college  hcense 
no  diocesan  assent  was  needed ;  the  imprimatur  of 
Cambridge  was  sufficient.  Cambridge  was  at  this 
time  under  Puritan  influence ;  and  therefore  a  num- 
ber of  stout  dissenters  were  kept  in  the  ministry 
despite  the  opposition  of  his  grace  of  Canterbury.* 

But  in  the  main,  the  government  achieved  its 
purpose  by  the  test-oath.  The  labors  of  a  host  of 
devoted  ministers  were  stopped.t  Hundreds  of 
churches  were  entirely  closed ;  for  at  best  the  sup- 
ply of  Protestant  preachers  was  very  limited  ;X  and 
the  Londoners,  refusing  to  listen  to  the  conforming 
chaplains,  would  not  attend  service  at  all,  unless 
they  could  steal  away  and  hearken  to  the  exhorta- 
tions of  Coverdale,  Sampson,  Lever,  and  others  of 
the  disfranchised  clergy  who  from  time  to  time 
proclaimed  the  gospel  to  the  poor  from  secret  cel- 
lars and  obscui'e  dens,  the  catacombs  of  London.§ 

Gagged  and  expelled  from  the  pulpit,  the  Puri- 
tans now  had  recourse  to  the  press,  that  trumpet- 
toned  avenger  of  the  throttled  truth.  A  war  of 
pamphlets  ensued ;  and  the  archbishop,  beholding 
the  popular  attention  which  the  controversy  attract- 


♦  Strype,  Life  of  Grindal,  p.  145. 
t  Ibid.,  Annals,  vol.  1,  pp.  131,  132. 
t  Ibid.,  Life  of  Parker,  vol.  1,  p.  43]. 
§  Ibid. 


Neale,  vol.  I,  p.  240. 


*  Punchard,  vol.  2,  p.  452. 

f  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  244.     Strype's  Parker,  voL  1,  p.  380. 
X  Hopkins,  Puritans,  vol.  1,  pp.  236-238.     Collier,  EccL  Hist., 
vol.  2.  §  Punchard ;  Soames,  p.  5. 


158 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


ed,  "  became  alarmed  lest  the  silenced  ministers 
should  do,  bj  means  of  their  pens,  what  he  had 
striven  to  prevent  them  from  doing  by  preaching — 
convert  the  masses  to  Puritanism." 

As  the  pulpit  was  chained,  it  was  now  deter- 
mined to  muzzle  the  press.  Accordingly,  in  1566, 
the  Star-chamber  issued  a  decree  forbidding  the 
pubHcation  of  any  book  which  criticised  the  state 
ritual  under  severe  penalties,  requiring  bonds  for 
the  observance  of  this  extra-judicial  statute  from 
printers,  stationers,  and  booksellers,  and  placing 
the  press  under  the  supervision  of  the  government, 
"  that  those  in  authority  might  see  how  books  de- 
meaned themselves."^ 

The  Puritans  were  now  reduced  to  an  unhappy 
strait.  The  pulpit  was  tabooed ;  the  press  was  pad- 
locked. They  lived  under  the  ban  and  at  the  peril 
of  the  law.  But  they  met  the  exigencies  of  their 
time  with  that  faith  which  is  able  to  "  move  moun- 
tains." They  believed  in  God.  They  actually  be- 
lieved in  him,  just  as  much  as  if  "  the  evidence  of 
things  not  seen"  stood  demonstrated  before  their 
eyes.  They  calculated  on  God  as  astronomers  cal- 
culate on  the  motions  of  the  stars.  Puritanism  was 
incarnate  faith. 

It  was  in  the  year  1566  that  the  Puritans  divided 
into  two  olasses.t  Hopeless  of  any  consideration 
inside  of  the  established  church,  some  earnest,  de- 

o  Hallam,  Cons.  Hist. ;  Strype,  Annals ;  Neale ;  Fuller, 
f  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  252 ;  Hopkins ;  Burnet ;  Strype's  Grindal, 
p.  16a 


i 


i 

I 


Li    i 


STAR-CHAMBER  DECREES. 


159 


vout  men  determined,  "  after  solemn  consultation," 
that  "it  was  their  duty,  in  their  present  circum- 
stances, to  break  off  from  it,  and  to  assemble  as 
they  had  opportunity  in  private  houses  or  elsewhere, 
to  worship  God  in  a  manner  which  might  not  offend 
against  the  light  of  their  consciences."*  These  were 
called  *'  Separatists;"  and  they  based  their  church- 
government  upon  the  principle 'of  the  individual  in- 
d^endence  of  the  churches.t 

But  by  far  the  greater  number  of  the  Puritans 
still  adhered  to  the  church  of  England,  and  continued 
to  do  so  for  upwards  of  a  century  longer.  These 
"  would  not  use  the  habits  nor  subscribe  to  the  cer- 
emonies enjoined,  as  kneeling  at  the  sacrament,  the 
cross  in  baptism,  the  ring  in  marriage;  but  they 
held  to  the  communion  of  the  church,  and  willingly 
and  devoutly  joined  in  the  common  prayers."^ 

Remembering  this  statement  of  so  careful  and 
competent  an  observer  as  Strype,  the  assertion  of 
Fuller,  that  the  Puritans  "  accounted  every  thing 
from  Rome  which  was  not  from  Geneva,  and  endeav- 
ored in  all  things  to  conform  the  government  of  the 
church  of  England  to  the  Presbyterian  reforma- 
tion,"§  must  be  taken  with  some  latitude,  especially 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  name  "  Puritan"  covered 
all  the  dissenting  evangelical  sects  of  the  time,  the 
Baptist  and  the  Lutheran,  as  well  as  the  Genevan 
schools. 

o  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  252 ;  Hopkins ;  Burnet ;  Strype's  Grindal, 
p.  168.  t  Bnnchard,  vol.  2,  chap.  13,  passim. 

X  Strype,  Life  of  Grindal,  p.  168.        §  Fuller,  voL  2,  p.  480. 


I; 


160 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


STAR-CHAMBER  DECREES. 


161 


But  whetlier  the  Puritans  were  Separatists  or 
church-of-England  men,  the  government  harried 
them  with  equal  rigor,  greedy  to  clutch  all  to  the 
bosom  of  its  uniformity. 

During  the  soughing  of  this  home  tempest,  Mary 
of  Scots,  expelled  from  her  mountain-throne  on  ac- 
count of  her  opposition  to  the  Keformation  in  Scot- 
land, came  into  England,  and  in  1568  claimed  the 
protection  of  her  royal  cousin  Elizabeth.*  • 

Scotland,  through  the  zeal  of  a  corps  of  indefat- 
igable preachers  led  by  John  Knox,  had  been  gath- 
ered into  the  Protestant  fold;  but  the  northern 
reformation  was  modelled  after  the  Swiss  church, 
and  it  stretched  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  the 
English  Puritans. t 

Ardently  wedded  to  the  old  ways,  Elizabeth 
could  not  but  detest  the  Puritanism  of  Scotland; 
but  rancorously  as  she  hated  the  Scotch  Puritans, 
she  still  more  cordially  detested  the  young  and 
beautiful  queen  who  now  stood  before  her  throne 
suing  for  protection.  She  had  never  forgiven  Mary 
for  assuming  the  arms  of  England  and  claiming  the 
British  crown  on  pretence  of  her  bastardy.  J  Now, 
as  power  was  in  her  hand,  vengeance  was  in  her 
heart ;  and  from  the  hour  of  her  first  entrance  into 
England,  she  had  detained  the  queen  of  Scots  in  a 
gilded  imprisonment  which  was  baptized  "protec- 
tion."§ 


•  Fuller,  Burnet,  Hume, 
t  Keale,  vol,  1,  pp.  128,  129. 
X  Chap.  10,  p.  137. 


i< 


\ 


§  Hume,  vol.  1,  p.  767. 


J 


The  European  sky  was  at  this  time  portentous. 
Behind  each  cloud  lurked  a  stealthy  thunderbolt. 
Eomanism,  reorganized  by  Jesuitism,  was  making  its 
reaction  assault  upon  the  Protestant  idea.  France, 
torn  by  internecine  strife,  bled  at  every  pore.  Each 
sigh  she  heaved  seemed  destined  to  be  her  last. 
She  wallowed  in  Huguenot  gore.  That  awful  suc- 
cession of  puppet  kings  under  the  Machiavellian 
regency  of  Catharine  de'  Medici,  who  shall  ade- 
quately paint  its  horrors?  It  was  the  jubilee  of 
pandemonium. 

The  Netherlands,  tortured  by  the  cruel  skill  of 
the  duke  d'Alva,  shrieked  in  concert  with  unhappy 
France. "  Large  parts  of  Germany  were  dragooned 
into  sullen  submission  to  the  Vatican.  It  was  the 
carnival  of  persecution.  The  Continent,  drunk  with 
blood,  reeled  in  a  ghastly /e7e. 

■  In  this  wild  foray  upon  the  Eeformation,  Eng- 
land was  not  forgotten.  Popish  emissaries.  Protean, 
intriguing,  ubiquitous,  swarmed  over  the  island, 
manipulating  fanatics  into  conspirators.t  The  pop- 
ish party  became  an  incarnate  cabal.  Jesuits  were 
found  under  every  disguise— scholars,  physicians, 
merchants,  conformist  churchmen,  Puritan  preach- 
ers. True  to  their  assumed  character,  they  still 
preached  ultra  and  absurd  doctrines,  whose  tend- 
ency was  to  disgust  and  divide  Protestants.  Mut- 
tering their  favorite  shibboleth,  "  The  end  sanctifies 

*  See  Mr.  Motley's  graphic  history  of  the  persecution  in  the 
Netherlands,  in  Bise  of  the  Dutch  Republic. 

|-  Stripe,  Life  of  Parker,  vol.  1,  p.  146  ;  Hume,  Fuller. 


I 

i 


» 


162         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

the  means,"  they  even  married  and  took  the  oath  of 
supremacy,  when  doing  so  promised  to  aid  their 
machinations.  There  was  no  crime,  strange,  un- 
heard of,  unthought  of  before,  which  their  prolific 
brains  did  not  hatch  and  galvanize  into  busy  mis- 
chief. 

Books  against  Elizabeth  and  her  government 
were  scattered  broadcast  throughout  Europe.*  A 
papist  league  was  formed,  whose  grand  object  was 
the  dethronement  of  the  maiden  queen.t  Roman- 
ist astrologers  predicted  the  speedy  occurrence  of 
strange  events.  Popish  conjurers  juggled  the  igno- 
rant into  believing  that  the  death  of  Elizabeth  and 
the  overthrow  of  Protestantism  might  momentarily 
be  expected  by  .the  miraculous  intervention  of  the 
heavenly  powers.  J 

"  Having  no  place  in  England  wherein  to  recruit 
themselves,"  the  Eomanists  established  colleges 
upon  the  Continent  for  the  express  purpose  of  edu- 
cating "  missionaries  "  to  effect  the  reconversion  of 
their  country  .§  The  first  of  these  nurseries  of  priest- 
craft was  erected  at  Douay,  in  Flanders.  There 
were  others  at  Rome,  Yalladolid,  Ghent,  St.  Omers, 
and  Madrid.ll  To  these  schools,  where  deceit  and 
murder  were  taught  as  sanctified  morality,  the  Ro- 
manist gentry  of  Britain  dispatched  their  sons  to  be 
educated.    The  immense  sums  of  money  collected 

*  Strype,  Annals,  vol.  1,  p.  92 ;  Neale ;  Hopkins. 

f  Ibid.    Life  of  Parker,  vol.  2,  pp.  1-5. 

t  Ibid, 

§  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  485 ;  Neale,  Collier,  etc. 

II  Saunders,  De  Schisma  Angl.,  pp.  178,  189. 


1 


STAR-CHAMBER  DECREES. 


163 


for  the  maintenance  of  these  "  colleges"  transmuted 
them  into  El  Dorados.* 

Scores  of  these  "missionaries"  now  scoured 
England  ;t  and  worked  on  by  these  arts,  the  sow- 
ers of  the  wind  soon  reaped  the  whirlwind.  This 
pestilent  agitation  bred  a  rebelHon.  Thousands 
broke  into  open  war.  The  whole  North  surged  in 
insurrection.J  Communion  tables  were  demolished ; 
Bibles  and  service-books  were  torn  in  pieces ;  the 
mass  was  exultingly  chanted  in  the  cathedral  of 
Durham ;  six  thousand  men-at-arms  rallied  under 
the  earls  of  Northumberland  and  Westmoreland, 
writing  the  liberation  of  Mary  of  Scots  and  the  re- 
establishment  of  Romanism  in  the  island  as  legends 

on  their  banners.§ 

This  outbreak  was  finally  quelled ;  some  of  the 
fanatics  who  stirred  it  were  beheaded ;  others  es- 
caped beyond  the  sea.ll  But  it  was  a  year  of  terror, 
and  England  shivered  in  the  storm. 

For  the  purpose  of  giving  new  life  to  the  reac- 
tionists, the  pontiff,  in  1570,  excommunicated  Eliz- 
abeth.! But  the  beating  of  that  Chinese  gong  star- 
tled no  one.  The  hrutum  fulmen  went  unheeded. 
The  European  courts  continued  their  correspond- 
ence with  the  anathematized  queen ;  and  the  do- 
mestic papists,  paralyzed  by  the  fate  of  the  malcon- 

*  Neale,  vol.  1.    Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  490. 

t  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  142  ;  Burnet. 

X  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  484 ;  Hopkins ;  Strype. 

§  Punchard,  vol.  2,  pp.  465,  466. 

II  Hume,  Fuller,  lingard,  Hallam. 

IT  Neale,  vol.  1.  p.  142 ;  Strype,  etc 


i 


\ 


164 


HISTORY  or  THE  PURITANS. 


tents  in  the  recent  emeute,  nursed  their  rage,  and 
cursed  with  bated  breath  and  whispered  humble- 
ness. 

Strange  to  narrate,  all  through  these  anxious 
and  frightened  months  the  persecution  of  the  Puri- 
tans was  kept  afoot.*  Silly  England  consented  to 
fight  with  one  hand  tied  behind  her  back.  While 
she  suppressed  the  Romanist  insurrection  with  her 
left  hand,  she  used  her  right  to  thrust  the  stanch- 
est  adherents  of  the  Eeformation  into  Bridewell  and 
Newgate  prisons.t  "  Sink  the  island,"  cried  Eliza- 
beth, "but  perish  Puritanism."  It  was  the  ludi- 
crous heroism  of  a  petticoated  Don  Quixote. 


*  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  112. 


t  Ibid.,  chap.  4. 


i 


1 


*'HOW  NOT  TO  DO  IT." 


165 


CHAPTER   XII. 


"HOW  NOT  TO  DO  IT." 


About  1570 — ^before  that,  but  more  noticeably 
after — the  governmental  policy  of  England  began  to 
squint  towards  the  fagot  and  the  stake.  Now  for 
a  dozen  years  the  rigorous  execution  of  the  penal 
laws  had  made  business  for  the  civihans ;  the  eccle- 
siastical courts  had  been  thronged ;  thousands  of 
honest  men  had  been  entangled  in  the  meshes  of  the 
common  and  the  canon  law,  and  harassed  in  mind 
and  broken  in  fortune*  by  the  dilatory  "  circumlocu- 
tion offices,"  whose  motto  was,  "  How  not  to  do  it." 
Yet  neither  the  cunning  lawyers  of  Temple  Bar,  nor 
the  severity  of  Star-chamber  decrees,  had  been  able 
to  wheedle  or  to  coerce  the  dissidents  into  outward 
uniformity. 

Indeed  these  measures,  instead  of  bridging  the 
chasm,  widened  it.  Never  before  had  the  non-con- 
formists of  all  sects  been  so  numerous  and  so  mili- 
tant.t  Until  the  recent  Romanist  insurrection,  the 
papists  had  outwardly  conformed;  but  now  they 
too  separated  openly,  defiantly,  and  they  intrigued 
and  scoffed. t 

Elizabeth  sighed,  and  glanced  towards  Smith- 
field.    As  a  feeler,  she  determined  to  execute  a  few 


o  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  497.     Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  144. 
f  Ibid.    Hopkins,  Hist,  of  the -Puritans. 


X  Ibid. 


166 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS 


*'HOW  NOT  TO  DO  IT." 


167 


Anabaptists;  if  the  country  cried  Amen  to  these 
aidos  dafe,  then  she  might  venture  to  strangle  pa- 
pists and  to  burn  Puritans.*  This  move  was  cun- 
ning. 

The  Anabaptists,  an  innocent  and  evangelical 
sect,  had  long  been  the  most  hunted  and  hated  of 
reformers.  Not  a  nation  in  Europe  but  had  anath- 
ematized them.  Their  distinctive  tenet  was  the 
denial  of  baptism  to  infants.t  They  were  indeed 
often  charged  with  holding  various  dangerous  doc- 
trines ;  but  their  peculiar  idea  of  baptism  was  of 
itself  suflSicient  to  bring  upon  them  grievous  pun- 
ishment. The  Anabaptists  were  among  the  earhest 
dissenters ;  the  disciples  of  their  creed  were  found 
among  the  Lollards  as  well  as  among  the  martyrs 
of  the  English  Reformation.^ 

Through  two  centuries  search  after  search  had 
been  made  for  them,  proclamation  after  proclama- 
tion had  been  launched  against  them.  And  even 
in  the  Elizabethan  epoch  they  were  so  unpopular, 
that  partisans  of  all  schools  of  theology  looked  with 
grim  complacency  upon  their  judicial  murder. § 

EHzabeth  then  decided  to  initiate  a  regime  of 
blood  by  kindling  Anabaptist  fires.  Accordingly 
"of  a  congregation  of  Flemish  refugees,  meeting 
without  Aldersgate  Bars,  London,  and  professing 
these  principles,  twenty-seven  were  imprisoned ; 
four,  bearing  fagots  at  St.  Paul's  Cross,  recanted, 

*  Collier.    .  f  Broadmead  Records,    Newell,  p.  175. 

%  Fox,  Acts,  etc.,  book  1,  cliap,  10. 

§  Perry,  History  of  the  Church  of  England,  p.  11. 


h^ 


and  obtained  their  release;  eight  were  banished; 
two  were  burned  at  Smithfield."* 

Instantly  an  ominous  growl  swept  across  the 
island.  England  shouted  an  imperative  veto.  The 
paradox  was  seen ;  and  it  was  in  relation  to  these 
unhappy  victims  of  Protestant  and  royal  persecu- 
tion that  old  John  Fox  addressed  his  famous  letter 
to  Elizabeth,  begging  that  "the  piles  and  flames  of 
Smithfield,  so  long  ago  extinguished,  might  not  be 

revived."t 

Headstrong  as  she  was,  the  spinster  queen  had 

sense  enough  to  see  that  she  was  foiled,  and  to 
acquiesce  ;  but  she  at  once  set  in  increased  motion 
the  whole  pitiless  machinery  for  the  enforcement  of 
uniformity.  The  civil  code  was  made  more  strin- 
gent, and  the  legislation  against  Eomanism  was 
especially  stinging  and  acute.  J  Unquestionably  a 
wiser  policy  might  have  been  pursued  even  against 
the  Vatican.  But  circumstances  combined  to  pal- 
liate Elizabeth's  extermination  of  the  Jesuit  and 
seminary  priests,  circumstances  which  did  not  shield 
her  persecution  of  the  reformers,  always  the  cor- 
dial, loyal  pillars  of  her  menaced  throne.  The 
Bomanist  powers  of  Europe  intrigued  to  gain  a 
domestic  party  in  Britain  pledged  to  act  against 
the  government.  The  queen  was  denounced,  nay, 
excommunicated  by  the  pope.  Therefore  Elizabeth 
might,  with  some  justice,  see  an  implacable  enemy 
in  every  papist,  and  do  her  utmost  to  root  out  a 


o  Newell,  p.  176. 

X  Perry,  p.  11.    Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  143. 


t  Ibid. 


\ 


16S 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


( ( 


HOW  NOT  TO  DO  IT." 


169 


pernicious  and  plotting  creed,  a  faith  which  was  a 
juggle,  a  religion  which  was  a  midnight  conspirator. 

But  the  plain  historic  fact  is,  that  Elizabeth's 
detestation  of  Puritanism  even  exceeded  her  hatred 
of  popery.  This  crops  out  in  her  harangue  to  Mal- 
vesier,  the  French  ambassador :  "  I  will  maintain 
the  religion  in  which  I  was  crowned  and  baptized ; 
and  I  will  suppress  the  papistical  religion,  that  it 
shall  not  grow ;  but  as  for  Puritanism,  I  w411  boot 
IT  out,  with  the  favorers,  thereof."* 

The  truth  should  seem  to  be  that  the  exagger- 
ated notions  of  authority  and  the  love  of  pompous 
ceremony,  which  were  among  the  most  salient  char- 
acteristics of  the  great  queen,  made  her  nearer  akin 
than  cousin  to  the  pope ;  and  she  was  in  much 
closer  sympathy  with  the  priest-caste  of  Kome  than 
with  the  democratic  tendency  which  her  sagaci6us 
instinct  led  her  to  detect  in  Puritanism. 

In  Elizabeth's  eyes,  the  "  unpardonable  sin"  was 
Puritanism.  That,  no  services,  no  talents  could 
extenuate ;  its  adherents  must  be  forced  upon  their 
knees  to  cry,  I  have  sinned,  and  to  hiccough,  Church 
and  state. 

Even  the  martyrologist  John  Fox,  one  of  the 
mildest  and  most  lovable  of  men,  was  summoned 
by  archbishop  Parker  to  subscribe,  "  that  the  rep- 
utation of  his  piety  might  give  the  greater  counte- 
nance to  conformity."  The  old  man  produced  the 
New  Testament :  "  To  this,"  said  he,  "  I  will  sub- 
scribe."   But  when  a  subscription  to  the  canons 

*  Malvesier's  Letters,  cited  by  Strype  in  Annals,  vol.  2,  p  568. 


\\\ 


was  required  of  him,  he  refused  it,  saying,  "  I  have 
nothing  in  the  church  save  a  prebend  at  Salisbury, 
and  much  good  may  it  do  you  if  you  will  take  it 
from  me."*  "  However,"  says  Fuller,  "such  respect 
did  the  bishops — most,  formerly,  his  fellow-exiles — 
bear  to  his  age,  parts,  and  pains,  that  he  continued 
in  his  place  till  the  day  of  his  death  ;"t  but  even 
this  illustrious  Christian,  shackled  by  his  Puritan- 
ism, rose  no  higher  in  the  church  than  a  petty  "  pre- 
bend at  Salisbury." 

It  was  in  1570  that  the  controversy  between  the 
Conformists  and  the  Puritans  assumed  a  new  phase. 
Hitherto  it  had  been  largely  a  quarrel  over  forms — 
the  habits,  the  cross  in  baptism,  and  kneeling  at  the 
Lord's  supper ;  now  it  broadened  into  more  radical 
differences.  J 

Thomas  Cartwright,  Margaret  professor  of  di- 
vinity at  Cambridge,  "  a  courageous  man,  a  popu- 
lar preacher,  a  profound  scholar,  and  master  of  an 
elegant  Latin  style,"  was  the  chief  of  this  new 
assault.§ 

Cartwright  "  was  in  high  esteem  in  the  univer- 
sity, his  lectures  being  frequented  by  vast  crowds 
of  scholars ;  and  when  he  preached  at  St.  Mary's, 
they  were  forced  to  take  down  the  windows."|| 

This  champion  of  Puritanism  inveighed  against 
what  he  considered  the  blemishes  of  the  Established 
church,  and  he  enforced  in  his  lectures  these  six 


o  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  475. 

X  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  144. 

II  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  144,  145. 


t  Ibid. 
§  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  503. 


P>iritaiia. 


8 


170         HISTOKY  or  THE  PURITANS. 

tenets :  that  the  names  and  functions  of  archbish- 
ops and  archdeacons  ought  to  be  abolished,  as  hav- 
ing no  foundation  in  Scripture ;  that  the  offices  of 
the  lawful  ministers  of  the  church  ought  to  be  re- 
duced to  the  apostolic  institution— the  bishops  to 
preach  and  pray,  the  deacons  to  take  charge  of  the 
poor ;  that  there  ought  to  be  an  equality  of  all  min- 
isters, each  one  to  be  chief  in  his  own  cure ;  that 
ministers  should  be  chosen  by  the  people,  not  cre- 
ated by  civil  authority;  that  ministers  should  be 
confined  to  their  own  parishes,  not  suffered  to  roam 
at  large ;  that  each  church  should  be  governed  by 
its  own  minister  and  presbyters.* 

This  radical  departure  from  the  English  ritual 
created  a  profound  sensation.  Cartwright's  propo- 
sitions were  denounced  as  untrue  and  dangerous, 
while  Cecil  called  upon  the  vice-chancellor  of  Cam- 
bridge to  silence  the  innovator  orto  compel  him  to  • 
recant.f 

From  this  bold  preaching  gi-ew  a  multitude  of 
letters,  lectures,  and  pamphlets.  Finally,  Cart- 
wright  was  expelled  from  the  university,  and  driven 
beyond  the  sea  by  the  malice  of  his  foes.J  While 
abroad  he  was  chosen  minister  to  the  English  mer- 
chants at  Antwerp,  and  he  carried  on  an  epistolary 
correspondence  with  a  number  of  noted  divines  in 
the  Protestant  universities  of  the  Continent.§ 

But  the  excitement  stirred  by  these  events  was 

•  Keale,  vol.  I,  pp.  144,  145.     NeweU,  pp.  153,  154. 

t  ^^^-  t  Strype  ;  Brook,  Life  of  Cartwright 

§  Ibid. 


**HOW  NOT  TO  DO  IT." 


171 


now  momentarily  eclipsed  by  a  newer  wonder.  It 
was  reported  on  the  streets  that  the  queen  was 
about  to  consummate  a  Komanist  marriage.  First 
Anjou  was  said  to  be  the  chosen  one ;  then  the 
hawkers  of  the  news  asserted  that  Alen9on  was  the 
person  ;  but  it  was  unanimously  agreed  that  one  of 
these  two  French  princes  had  been  selected  as  the 
husband  of  Elizabeth.* 

The  hubbub  was  unprecedented.  England  pro- 
tested. Sir  Philip  Sidney  wrote  his  royal  mistress 
a  spirited  private  remonstrance  ;t  and  the  excite- 
ment was  increased  by  the  publication  of  a  pamph- 
let in  which  the  French  princes  were  truly  painted 
as  the  incarnation  of  the  most  odious  vices,  and  in 
which  the  projected  marriage  was  denounced  as  "an 
impious  and  sacrilegious  union  between  a  daughter 
of  God  and  a  son  of  the  devil."t 

Elizabeth  was  terribly  angered  by  this  satire, 
and  she  caused  its  author,  who  was  a  brother-in- 
law  of  Cartwright,  and  a  friend  of  the  famous  Spen- 
ser, one  of  the  finest  poets  in  English  letters,  to  be 
tried  in  the  Queen's  Bench,  and  condemned  to  have 
his  right  hand  smitten  off  by  a  butcher's  knife  and 
mallet.§  Page,  the  publisher,  after  suffering  the 
same  punishment,  said  firmly,  pointing  with  his  left 
hand  to  the  amputated  member  on  the  scaffold, 
"  There  lies  the  hand  of  a  true  Englishman. "|| 

Frightened  from  her  projected  marriage  by  the 

o  Mackintosh,  Hist.  Eng.,  vol.  3,  p.  279 ;  Lingard,  Froude. 
t  Lingard,  vol.  4,  p.  366.     Strype,  Life  of  Parker,  bk.  4,  cIl  2. 
J  Ibid.  §  Ibid.  II  Ibid.;  NeweU,  p.  156. 


172 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


popular  murmurs,  Elizabeth  relapsed  into  still 
gloomier  fanaticism. 

In  1572,  the  "  Admonition  to  Parliament  for  the 
Keformation  of  Church  Discipline"  appeared.  This 
was  an  echo  of  Cartwright's  Cambridge  lectures, 
and  like  its  predecessors,  it  made  a  flutter  in  the 
dove-cote.  Now  again,  as  before,  many  pamphlets 
were  bandied  between  the  learned  men  of  the  re- 
spective parties;  and  Cartwright,  who  had  just 
returned  fi'om  the  Continent,  contended  in  this 
Olympian  game  of  words  with  "Whitgift,  a  learned 
and  eloquent  divine,  who  was  the  champion  of  the 
Conformist  party  * 

The  question  at  issue  was,  "  What  is  the  fittest 
form  of  church  government  ?" 

The  Puritans  maintained  that  Parliament  ought 
to  establish  by  law  a  church  discipline  more  agree- 
able to  the  Scripture  model  than  the  established 
one ;  and  in  order  to  show  what  form  they  should 
prefer,  they  appended  to  the  volume  which  opened 
the  controversy  the  letters  of  Beza  and  Gaultier  to 
Leicester  and  bishop  Parkhurst,  letters  which  fa- 
vored the  continental  order.t 

The  Established  church  men  grounded  their 
argument  on  the  Erastianif  principle  that  no  form 

o  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  503.     Brook,  Life  of  Cartwright. 

t  Brook,  Lives  of  the  Puritans,  voL  2,  pp.  185-190 ;  Strype ; 
Neale. 

X  Erastus  was  a  German  physician  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
His  principle  was  that  the  church  is  to  be  recognized  as  simply  a 
member  of  the  general  body  called  the  state,  and  possessing  no 
coercive  power  save  through  the  arm  of  the  civil  magistrate. 
Newell,  p.  158,  note. 


<  ( 


HOW  NOT  TO  DO  IT." 


173 


of  church  government  is  laid  down  in  Scripture, 
but  that  the  form  of  worship  is  left  indifferent  * 

The  authors  of  the  "Admonition"  were  flung 
into  prison,  where  they  lay  for  many  months,  and 
every  effort  was  made  by  the  goyernment  to  seize 
their  book,  but  in  vain ;  neither  could  its  successors 
be  strangled  in  their  birth,  for  they  could  not  be 
found.  Secret  presses  multipHed  Puritan  books, 
and  these  were  so  firmly  retained,  despite  a  royal 
proclamation  against  them,  that  the  seeds  of  thought 
and  protest  were  sown  broadcast  throughout  the 
furrows  of  the  time.t 

The  arbitrary  action  of  the  government  made 
the  tide  set  strongly  against  the  bishops,  for,  aside 
from  the  merits  of  the  case,  in  regard  to  which  men 
might  easily  differ,  the  sentiment  of  fair-play,  which 
lies  at  the  bottom  of  every  honest  Saxon  heart,  was 
fatally  offended.  "  If  they  did  not  fear  discussion," 
said  the  impartial  masses,  "  the  bishops  would  not 
padlock  free  speech."  Thus,  notwithstanding  the 
acute,  learned,  and  very  able  defence  of  the  Eng- 
lish Establishment  made  by  Whitgift,  assisted  by 
Parker  and  his  confreres,  the  government  lost  qxste, 
beaten  more  by  its  own  besotted  policy  than  by  the 
arguments  of  its  keen  and  earnest  opponents. 

At  all  events,  it  is  certain  that  the  universities, 
the  metropohs,  and  the  country  at  large,  began  to 
lean  decidedly  towards  Puritanism.  To  this  Strype 
bears  sorrowing  witness,  informing  us  that,  "  not- 

*  Strype,  Life  of  Parker  ;  Newell. 
t  Strype,  Annals,  vol.  1,  chap.  28. 


174        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

withstanding  the  opposition  the  Puritans  met  with 
from  the  queen  and  her  commissioners,  by  her  re- 
peated orders  and  commands,  they  yet  got  ground 
daily,  and  increased  more  and  more,  being  favored 
by  many  in  court  and  city."* 

The  Parliament  had  long  been  willing  to  attempt 
something  in  favor  of  the  Puritans.  One  of  the 
members,  Strickland,  "  a  grave  and  ancient  man  of 
great  zeal,"  had,  in  1571,  offered  a  bill  for  a  further 
reformation  in  the  church  which  he  had  supported 
in  two  powerful  speeches.t  He  was,  however,  re- 
buked in  the  open  house  for  his  impudence  in  ven- 
turing to  meddle  with  the  royal  prerogative ;  and 
after  the  daily  adjournment,  Elizabeth  cited  the 
brave  pleader  before  her  council,  and  forbade  him 
the  Parhament  house.J  But  this  bold  tyranny 
occasioned  such  a  tumultuous  debate,  that  the 
queen  hastened  to  reverse  her  verdict. 

Strickland  was  no  sooner  restored  to  his  seat 
than  he  moved  that  "  a  confession  of  faith  should 
be  published  and  confirmed  by  Parliament,  as  it 
was  in  other  Protestant  countries."§  Another  mem- 
ber, Norton,  "  a  man  wise,  bold,  and  eloquent,  stood 
up  next,"  and  supported  Strickland's  motion.il 

A  committee  was  appointed,  and  a  Hst  of  arti- 
cles was  drawn  up  in  substantial  agreement  with 
those  already  confirmed;  but  several  of  the  old 
articles  were  omitted  in  the  parhamentary  rubric. 

*  Strype,  Life  of  Parker,  voL  2,  pp.  191,  192. 
t  D'Ewes'  Journal,  pp.  147,  156.     Strype,  Ann.,  vol.  2,  p.  93. 
t  Ibid.     Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  147.  §  Ibid. 

II  D'Ewes'  Journal,  p.  118. 


'*HOW  NOT  TO  DO  IT." 


175 


"When  the  committee  came  to  confer  with  the  bish- 
ops, Parker  asked  why  these  had  been  stricken  out. 
Sir  Peter  Wentworth,  the  great  champion  of  civil 
and  religious  liberty  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  replied, 
"  Because  we  have  not  yet  examined  how  far  they 
are  agreeable  to  the  word  of  God,  having  thus  far 
confined  ourselves  chiefly  to  doctrines."  The  arch- 
bishop then  remarked,  "Surely  you  will  refer  your- 
selves wholly  to  us  the  bishops  in  these  things." 
"No!"  retorted  Wentworth  warmly;  "no,  by  the 
faith  I  bear  to  God,  we  will  pass  nothing  before  we 
understand  what  it  is,  for  to  do  so  were  to  make 
you  popes ;  make  you  popes  who  list,  for  we  will 
make  you  none."* 

These  were  brave  words,  and  they  show  a  vast 
improvement  in  the  tone  of  EngUsh  statesmanship 
since  the  lackey  parliaments  of  Henry,  Edward, 
and  Mary  assembled  to  record  the  whims  of  tyrant 
princes.  As  the  French  revolution  was  in  the  pages 
of  Rousseau  and  Pascal  long  before  it  ran  foaming 
through  the  streets  of  Paris,  so  the  "  great  rebel- 
lion" scowled  in  these  words  of  Peter  Wentworth 
before  it  charged  at  Marston  Moor  and  struck  off  a 
perjured  prince's  head. 

But  these  bills  did  not  amount  to  much,  except 
as  an  indication  of  the  growing  spirit  of  the  com- 
mons ;  for  when  they  were  presented  to  Elizabeth 
for  her  approval,  the  royal  Jezebel "  dashed"  them, 
and  they  came  to  naught. t 

•  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  147,  148. 

f  Punchard,  voL  2,  p.  470.    D'Ewes ;  Strype,  Life  of  Parker^ 


176 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 


The  Puritans  next  had  recourse  to  the  Convoca- 
tion ;  but  here  they  met  with  no  sympathy,  for  this 
was  the  obsequious  creature  of  the  court.* 

In  the  ParKament  of  1572,  the  Puritans  made 
another  effort  to  win  recognition  from  the  state. 
But  Elizabeth,  after  the  passage  of  a  reformatory 
bill,  "  strangled  it  with  her  own  hands ;"  and  then, 
deaf  to  the  petition  of  the  commons  for  redress,  she 
prorogued  the  House  without  deigning  to  notice  its 
prayer,  flinging  into  the  ears  of  the  retiring  mem- 
bers a  severe  reprimand  for  "their  audacious,  arro- 
gant, and  presumptuous  folly,  in  thus,  by  superflu- 
ous speech,  spending  much  time  in  meddling  with 
afi'airs  neither  pertaining  to  them  nor  within  the 
capacity  of  their  understandings. "t 

But  while  the  English  Xantippe  was  thus  scold- 
ing Parliament,  she  was  scourging  the  Puritans  with 
severer  weapons  than  the  tongue.  Cartwright  was 
arrested  and  thrown  into  prison  as  "a  preacher  of 
sedition."t  There  he  lay  and  suff'ered  for  weary 
months,  despite  the  intervention  of  Lord  Burleigh 
and  the  prayer  of  the  king  of  Scots.§  After  being 
cuffed  from  jail  to  jail,  browbeaten  by  mushroom 
prelates,  and  rated  by  ecclesiastical  commissioners, 
he  eventually  retired  to  the  island  of  Guernsey, 
where  his  later  years  were  spent. 

Cartwright's  letters  show  that  he  never  was  a 
separatist,  but  that  his  aim  as  a  Puritan  was  to 

o  Sparrow's  Collections.     Hopkins,  Hist.  Puritans.    Fronde. 

t  D'Ewes,  Journal,  p.  151 ;  Brookx 

X  Brook,  Life  of  Cartwright ;  Fuller.  §  Newell,  p.  169. 


«*HOW  NOT  TO  DO  IT." 


177 


adjust  the  discipline  of  the  Established  church  to 
what  he  esteemed  the  word  of  God.^  Yet  for  this 
honest  endeavor  his  career  was  blocked,  his  useful- 
ness was  shackled,  his  fame' was  clouded,  his  con- 
stitution was  broken  by  physical  maltreatment,  and 
his  last  years  were  imbittered  by  exile.  Such  was 
the  garland  which  those  unhappy  times  twined 
about  the  brow  of  enthusiasts  .for  the  truth. 

At  this  very  time,  while  she  was  persecuting  the 
Puritans  in  England,  Elizabeth  was  aiding  the  pro- 
fessors of  the  self-same  tenets  bv  her  influence, 
money,  and  arms  in  Scotland,  France,  and  the  Neth- 
erlands.t  And  when  in  this  same  year  of  1573, 
aghast  England  heard  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, the  queen  shrouded  her  court  in  mourn- 
ing for  the  murdered  Huguenots ;  then,  decked  out 
in  "the  trappings  and  the  suits  of  woe,"  she  turned 
to  complete  the  butchery  of  the  Puritans. 

It  is  said  that  after  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew, the  day  was  long  remarkable  for  wet  weather. J 

"Bartholomew  bemoans  with  rain 
The  Gallic  Atlas  therein  slain,  "§ 

runs  the  old  couplet.  Perhaps  the  sky  wept  as 
much  over  England's  hypocrisy  as  over  the  fanat- 
ical brutality  of  frenzied  France. 

*  Newell,  p.  69.  f  Perry,  p.  13. 

t  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  505. 

§  **Bartholomeus  flet,  quia  Gallicus  occubat  Atlas." 


8^? 


118 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


NOTES  BY  THE  WAY. 


179 


CHAPTEE  XIII. 

NOTES  BY  THE   WAY. 

"  Man,"  says  Lamartine,  "  never  fastens  a  chain 
about  his  brother's  neck  that  God's  o>vti  hand  does 
not  fix  the  yoke  upon  his  own."  Elizabeth,  in  at- 
tempting to  girt  the  laws  closer  about  the  Puritans, 
almost  choked  conformity. 

Matthew  Parker,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  was 
just  dead,  and  evangelical  England  breathed  freer. 
That  prelate  did  not  then,  nor  has  he  since,  lacked 
panegyrists;  but  the  main  current  of  testimony 
tends  to  confirm  the  calm  verdict  of  impartial  his- 
^  tory,  that  Parker  was  a  haughty,  worldly,  and  cruel 
churchman,  more  zealous  to  coerce  honest  conscien- 
pes  into  the  hypocrisy  of  apparent  conformity,  than 
active  to  garner  souls  into  the  heavenly  kingdom.* 

The  liberahsts  esteemed  the  accession  of  Ed- 
mund Grindal  to  the  primacy  to  be  another  triumph. 
He  was  the  close  friend  of  the  leading  Puritans  with- 
in the  church  ;t  he  had  been  an  exile  in  the  Marian 
age,  and  he  was  known  to  be  a  prelate  of  amiable 
temper  and  Christian  principle. 

So  situated,  and  standing  by  the  open  grave  of 

*  Hallam,  Fuller,  Newell,  Strype,  Neale,  etc.  Strype  and  Ful- 
ler can  see  no  evil  in  Parker ;  but  the  others  estimate  his  charac- 
ter more  justly.     See  also  Collier  and  Hume. 

t  Newell,  p.  209. 


"the  most  severe  disciplinarian  of  Elizabeth's  first 
hierarchy,"*  the  Puritans  might  moralize,  "It  is 
God's  beneficent  providence — death.  When  ideas 
have  shaped  themselves  in  a  rigid  mould,  and  be- 
come fossil,  God  takes  oif  the  weight  of  the  dead 
men  from  their  age,  and  leaves  room  for  the  new 
bud." 

Strengthened  then  by  the  death  of  Parker  in 
1575,  and  by  Grindal's  piety,  the  devout  men,  both 
Puritans  and  Conformists,  in  the  Established  church, 
organized  religious  meetings  which  soon  came  to 
be  called  "  Prophesy ings ;"  a  name  suggested  by 
Paul's  words  addressed  to  the  Corinthian  church  : 
"Ye  may  all  prophesy  one  by  one,  that  all  may 
learn,  and  all  may  be  comforted."t 

Strange  to  say,  a  Protestant  princess  objected 
even  to  these  useful  and  harmless  convocations. 
"When  they  became  popular,  and  were  attended  by 
numerous  clergymen  as  well  as  distinguished  lay- 
men, Elizabeth,  who  was  ofiended  at  the  number 
of  preachers  who  gathered  on  these  occasions,  and 
who  "did  not  like  that  the  laity  should  neglect 
their  secular  affairs  by  repairing-So  frequently  to 
chapel,"  invoked  the  civil  authorities  to  suppress 
these  "  unlawful  assemblies. "J 

Learning  that  the  "  Prophesyings  "  had  received 
the  countenance  of  the  bishops,  that  archbishop 
Grindal  himself  strongly  befriended  them,  and  that 

♦  Hallam,  Cons.  Hist.,  vol.  1,  ch.  4. 

f  1  Corinthians  14:31.     Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  6. 

I  Strype,  Life  of  Grindal,  book  2,  chap.  2. 


180 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


NOTES  BY  THE  WAY. 


181 


they  "  were  mucli  used  now  throughout  most  of  the 
dioceses,"*  the  meddlesome  and  impudent  spinster 
whose  caprice  governed  England,  sent  for  her  new 
primate,  and  "rated  him  soundly."  "S'death," 
cried  she  in  this  unique  concio  ad  denim,  "  it  is  good 
for  the  church  to  have  feto  preachers;  three  or  four 
will  suffice  for  a  county.  I  like  not  these  exhorta- 
tions ;  commend  me  to  the  reading  of  the  homilies ; 
*tis  enough.  The  number  of  preachers  must  be 
abridged ;  and  I  charge  you,  put  down  the  *  Proph- 
esyings.'  "t 

Grindal  heard  this  mad  tirade  out ;  then  quit- 
ting the  royal  presence,  went  home  and  wrote  Eliz- 
abeth a  long  and  able  letter,  in  which  he  informed 
her  of  the  usefulness  and  the  necessity  of  preach- 
ing, declared  that  the  "  Prophesyings "  were  sub- 
servient to  holy  living,  affirmed  that  whereas  be- 
fore the  exercises  there  were  not  three  able  preach- 
ers in  his  diocese,  now  there  were  thirty  fit  to  preach 
at  Paul's  Cross,  and  forty  or  fifty  besides  able  to 
instruct  their  cures.  Grindal  concluded  by  assur- 
ing the  queen  that  he  could  not,  owing  to  the  use- 
fulness of  the  exercises,  suppress  them  without 
offending  God.  "  I  say  with  Paul,"  added  he,  "  I 
have  no  power  to  destroy,  only  to  build  up ;"  and 
with  the  same  apostle,  "I  can  do  nothing  against 
the  truth,  but  for  the  trutli."^ 

This  admirable  rebuke  from  the  first  ecclesias- 
tic in  the  kingdom  so  angered  the  petulant  and  vin- 

*  Strype,  Annals,  vol.  2,  p.  133,  and  on. 

f  Strype,  Grindal,  book  2.         J  Ibid.,  Appendix,  No.  10. 


I 


dictive  queen,  that  she  ordered  Grindal  to  be  con- 
fined to  his  house,  and  had  him  sequestered  from 
his  archiepiscopal  functions  for  six  months  by  a 
Star-chamber  decree.* 

Thus  peremptorily  did  EHzabeth  act  in  a  mat- 
ter purely  rehgious,  walking  beyond  the  outermost 
verge  of  her  sacrilegious  supremacy,  and  tieing  the 
hands  of  the  primate  of  England  himself  when,  in 
the  honest  performance  of  his  episcopal  duties,  he 
ventured  to  argue  down  her  idle  whims. 

Although  Burleigh  and  other  statesmen  endeav- 
ored to  bend  Grindal  to  obedience  to  the  queen  in 
this,  the  good  prelate  continued  firm.t  Then  there 
was  some  talk  of  degrading  him  from  his  see ;  but 
this  was  finally  abandoned,  because  Elizabeth,  like 
Pilate,  "  feared  the  people."  But  Grindal  "  walked 
under  a  cloud"  through  the  rest  of  his  life.  "  Bro- 
ken and  feeble  with  grief,"  he  became  bhnd  in  1582, 
whereon  he  resigned  his  primacy,  surviving  his  lost 
honors  but  a  few  months.^ 

GrindaFs  unselfish  devotion  has  immortalized 
his  memory  ;  and  it  linked  him  by  the  kinship  of 
suffering  to  the  hearts  of  the  Non-conformists,  who 
were  still  more  wickedly  "meeted  and  peeled" 
under  Elizabeth's  Draconic  code ;  and  this  too  de- 
spite the  fact  that  he,  like  Parker, -abandoned  in 
their  case,  after  a  few  essays,  the  legitimate  meth- 
ods of  persuasion  for  the  severer  logic  of  the  laws.§ 
That  "  sweet  Spenser"  loved  him  is  evinced  by  the 

*  Strype,  Grindal,  Appendix,  No.  10 ;  Ncale,  Newejl. 

t  Newell,  p.  213.       %  Ibid..  Strype,  etc.       §  Newell,  p.  209. 


a^ 


182         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

great  poet's  introduction  of  him  under  the  anagram 
of  his  name,  "  Algrind" 

Upon  the  death  of  Grindal,  sajs  Hume,  the 
queen  determined  "  not  to  fall  into  the  same  error 
in  her  next  choice ;  and  she  named  Whitgift,  a  zeal- 
ous churchman,  who  had  already  signalized  his  pen 
in  controversy,  and  who,  having  in  vain  attempted  to 
convince  the  Puritans  by  argument,  was  now  resolv- 
ed to  open  their  eyes  by  power,  and  by  the  remorse- 
less execution  of  the  penal  statutes.     He  informed 
her  that  the  spiritual  power  lodged  in  the  prelates 
was  still  insignificant;  and  as  there  was  then  no 
ecclesiastical  commission  in  force,  he  engaged  her 
to  issue  a  new  one,  more  arbitrary  than  any  of  the 
former,  and  conveying  more  unlimited  authority."* 
But  while  the  new  primate  was  thus  forging  his 
thunderbolts,  vital  piety,  smitten  through  Grindal 
from  the  very  throne,  lay  torpid.     Sir  Kobert  Cot- 
ton, referring  to  the  times  of  the  "  Prophesyings," 
says,  "In  those  days  there  was  an  emulation  be- 
twixt the  clergy  and  the  laity,  and  a  strife  whether 
of  them  should  show  themselves  most  affectionate 
to  the  gospel.     Ministers  haunted  the  houses  of  the 
worthiest  men,  where  Jesuits  now  build  their  taber- 
nacles, and  poor  country  chapels  were  frequented 
by  the  best  in  the  shire.     The  word  of  God  was 
precious,  prayer  and  preaching  went  hand  in  hand, 
until  Archbishop  Grindal's  disgrace  brought  the 
flowing  of  these  good  graces  .to  a  still  water."t 

•  Hume,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  Reign  of  Elizabeth. 
t  Strype,  Life  of  Grindal,  book  2,  chap.  9. 


NOTES  BY  THE  WAY. 


183 


w 


Indeed,  the  condition  of  Britain  at  this  epoch 
was  most  scandalous.  The  rotten  morals  of  the 
saturnalia  had  been  vomited  into  England  by  sick- 
ened Rome.  Formal  hypocrisy  was  baptized  relig- 
ion. The  earnest  and  devout  men  both  in  and  out 
of  the  church  were  harassed  and  imprisoned.  The 
Sabbath  was  openly  blasphemed ;  it  was  a  gala  day, 
given  up  to  riot,  to  gaming,  to  drunkenness.*  Arch- 
bishop Parker  was  himseK  charged  with  "giving 
entertainments  and  feastings  chiefly  on  the  Lord's 

day."t 

"Cabined,  cribbed,  confined"  by  the  severity  of 
the  High  Commission  and  the  narrow  terms  of  uni- 
formity, the  supply  of  preachers  began  to  fail.  The 
queen's  wish  was  more  than  fulfilled;  for  whole 
counties,  starving  for  the  bread  of  life,  were  without 
a  single  minister.:]:  And  under  the  court  regime^ 
those  provided  with  preachers  were  not  much  better 
ofi",  "  most  of  the  old  incumbents  being  either  plu- 
ralists,  non-residents,  or  disguised  papists,  fitter  to 
sport  with  the  timbrel  and  pipe  than  to  take  God's 
book  into  their  hands."  In  the  county  of  Cornwall 
there  were  a  hundred  and  forty  of  these  clerical 
drones,  not  one  of  whom  could  compose  a  sermon ; 
robbed  of  their  mass-book,  they  stood  tongue-tied.§ 
A  petition  presented  to  the  Parliament  of  1579-80 
says,  that  at  least  one  half  of  the  churches  of  Lon- 

*  strype,  Fuller,  Hopkins,  Neale,  etc. 

\  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  187. 

X  Ibid.,  p.  198.    McCullough,  British  Empire,  vol.  1,  p.  399. 

§  Ibid. 


184 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


don  were  imfuinislied  with  curates,  and  scarcely  one 
in  ten  of  tliose  nominally  provided  possessed  cler- 
gymen who  conscientiously  served  their  parishion- 


NOTES  BY- THE  WAY. 


185 


* 


ers. 

"  Yet  at  this  very  time,"  says  Neale,  "  there  was 
a  rising  generation  of  valuable  preachers,  ready  and 
anxious  for  the  ministry,  if  they  might  have  been 
encouraged ;  for  in  a  supplication  of  some  of  the 
students  of  Cambridge  about  this  time,  they  acknow- 
ledge that  there  were  plenty  of  able  and  well-fur- 
nished men  among  them,  but  that  those  could  not 
get  into  livings  upon  equal  conditions ;  while  un- 
learned men,  nay,  the  scum  of  the  people,  were  pre- 
ferred before  them.  So  that  in  this  great  want  of 
laborers,  they  stood  idle  in  the  market-place  all  the 
day,  being  urged  by  the  bishops  to  pledge  conform- 
ity, and  to  approve  that,  as  agreeable  to  the  word 
of  God,  which  with  no  safety  of  conscience  they 
could  accord  unto."t 

Then  beside  these  chafing  neophytes  stood  the 
army  of  veteran  ministers,  deprived  and  silenced 
because  they  could  not  "  take  a  false  oath,  and  sub- 
scribe themselves  slaves ;"  agonizing  to  preach,  yet 
standing  gagged  by  statutes,  unable  to  utter  a  word, 
and  slowly  dying  of  despair. 

Is  it  astonishing  that  morals  and  religion  were 
at  a  low  ebb  in  England  ?  Even  Strype,  always  the 
willing  panegyrist  of  Elizabeth  when  truth  did  not 
tie  his  honest  pen,  draws  this  sombre  picture  of  the 

*  Punchard,  toI.  2,  pp.  490,  491. 
t  Ncale,  vol.  1,  pp.  198,  199. 


situation :  "  The  state  of  the  church  was  now  low 
and  sadly  neglected.  The  queen's  own  court  was  a 
harbor  for  epicjures  and  atheists."* 

No  wonder  then  if  EHzabeth  and  her  inquisito- 
rial satellites  came,  as  Fuller  confesses  they  did,  to 
consider  "  all  pious  people  as  embraced  under  this 
nickname,  '  Puritans,'  "t  and  to  hack  indiscrimi- 
nately right  and  left,  pinching  conformists  as  read- 
ily as  dissidents. 

Here  again  we  summon  Strype  upon  the  witness- 
stand  :  "  When  it  was  ascertained  that  in  several  of 
the  counties  certain  rehgiously  disposed  Conform- 
ists had  contracted  the  habit  of  getting  together  on 
holy  days,  after  dinner  or  supper,  for  conference  and 
worship,  the  ecclesiastical  commissioners  cited  the 
neighboring  curates  to  explain  why  they  did  not 
forbid  these  'unlawful  assemblies.'"  What  they 
replied  is  not  known;  but  on  their  return  to  their 
parishes,  the  dangerous  meetings  were  suppressed. 

The  parties  thus  dealt  with  made  this  declara- 
tion :  "  We  do  not  favor  or  maintain  any  of  the  opin- 
ions of  the  Anabaptists,  Puritans,  or  Papists,  but 
would  be  glad  to  learn  our  duty  towards  God,  our 
prince,  and  magistrates,  towards  our  neighbors  and 
our  famihes,  in  such  sort  as  becomes  good,  faithful, 
and  obedient  subjects.  The  occasion  of  our  assem- 
blies on  the  holy  days  after  supper  was  this :  for  that 
heretofore  we  have  at  divers  times  spent  and  con- 
sumed our  holy  days  vainly,  in  drinking  at  the  ale- 

*  In  Life  of  Parker,  voL  2,  p.  204. 
t  Fuller,  voL  2,  p.  474.         .      . 


I 


/ 


186        HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS 

house  and  playing  at  dice,  cards,  and  other  vain  pas- 
times, for  the  which  we  have  been  often  blamed  by 
our  pastor ;  so  we  thought  it  better  to  bestow  our 
time  in  sober  and  godly  reading  the  Scriptures,  only 
for  the  purpose  aforesaid  and  no  other."* 

Yet  the  government  would  not  rescind  its  veto. 
"  The  rulers  of  church  and  state  thought  it  a  less 
evil  for  men  to  spend  their  time  on  holy  days  in 
drinking  and  gaming  than  in  'unauthorized'  meet- 
ings for  reading  the  Scriptures,  prayer,  and  confer- 
ence."t 

This  did  not  occur  in  Spain,  among  the  mutter- 
ers  of  the  mass ;  it  did  not  take  place  in  the  Eo- 
manist  Italy  of  the  Borgias  :  these  things  happened 
in  Protestant  England ;  and  in  the  reign,  not  of 
Mary,  but  of  EHzabeth  Tudor. 

All  great  moral,  all  great  political  movements 
run  easily,  almost  inevitably,  into  extremes,  and 
breed  fanaticism.  In  a  community  stirred  and 
tossed  by  tumultuous  excitement,  it  is  always  safe 
to  prophesy  that  some  minds  will  be  unstrung  and 
fanaticized.  Men  of  vivid  imagination,  of  specula- 
tive tendency,  dreamers,  will  feel  a  strange  exalta- 
tion, see  visions,  and  seer-like,  assume  to  lift  the 
misty  curtain  of  the  future,  and  to  foretell  events. 

Upon  this  fact,  miscalled  "Conservatives" — 
men  who,  had  they  Hved  at  the  time  of  the  creation, 
would  have  cried  with  Cousin's  lover  of  "the  old 
ways,"  "  Great  God,  what  will  become  of  Chaos?" — 

•  Strype,  Life  of  Parker,  vol.  2,  pp.  381-385  ;  Neale ;  Punchard. 
t  Punchard,  vol.  2,  p.  502. 


NOTES  BYTHE  WAY. 


187 


i 


base  arguments  against  reform.  But  extravaganta 
are  not  caused  by  progress ;  they  are  nature's  pro- 
test against  darkness.  Extremists  are  men  half 
awake,  but  whose  eyes  are  not  yet  fuUy  open,  and 
they  gi-ope  wildly  in  the  dazzling  sunshine. 

Already  the  EngHsh  Keformation  had  adopted  a 
misshapen  sect  called  the  "Familists,"*  "worse  in 
their  practices  than  in  their  opinions;  for  they 
grieved  the  Comforter,  charging  all  their  sins  on 
God's  Spii'it  for  not  effectually  assisting  them  against 
themselves ;  counting  themselves  as  innocent  as  the  • 
maid  forced  in  the  field,  crying  out,  and  having  none 
to  help  her."t 

Now,  in  the  interstices  of  the  controversy  between 
the  EngHsh  Establishment  and  Puritanism,  another 
hated  sect  cropped  out;  the  "BEOWNiSTs"t  began 
to  grow.     These  sectaries  accepted  the  articles  of 

*  One  Nicolas,  bom  in  Amsterdam,  first  vented  this  doctrine 
m  his  o^Ti  country  in  1550.  His  followers  termed  themselves  the 
-Family  of  Love."  See  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  517,  and  on.  Also  Neale, 
^^^^  V.*"-  t  Fuller,  vol.  2,  p.  519. 

I  ''These  people  were  called   'Brownists'  from  one  Robert 
Brown,  a  preacher  in  the  diocese  of  Norwich,  descended  of  an  an- 
cient and  honorable  family,  and  nearly  related  to  the  lord-treas- 
urer Cecil.    He  was  educated  at  Corpus  Christi  college,  Cambridge  • 
and  he  preached  sometimes  in  Bennet  church,  where  the  vehe-' 
mence  of  his  deUvery  gained  him  reputation.   He  was  first  a  school- 
master,  then  a  lecturer  at  Islington  ;  but  being  a  fiery,  hot-headed 
young  m&n,  he  went  about  inveighing  against  the  discipline  and 
ceremomes  of  the  church,  and  exhorting  the  people  by  no  means 
to  comply  with  them."    Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  204,  and  on.     This  con- 
duct speedily  brought  Brown  to  the  notice  of  the  government 
He  was  miprisoned ;  released  through  Burleigh's  influence ;  sent 
home  to  his  father ;  dismissed  by  him  from  the  family ;  excom- 
mumcated ;  pardoned ;  given  a  church  in  Northamptonshire  ;  and 


188 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


faith  of  the  EngUsh  church,  but  they  were  narrow 
and  rigid  in  their  ideas  of  discipHne.*  Their  own 
government  was  framed  upon  the  apostoHc  model ; 
and  it  was  not  this  that  gave  them  a  bad  name. 
They  were  severe  bigots,  and  renounced  commun- 
ion with  the  EstabHshed  church,  which  they  de- 
nounced as  no  church,  but  a  popish,  an ti-christian 
juggle,  and  with  all  other  churches  which  did  not 
exactly  agree  with  their  pattern.t 

Their  chief  crime  was  uncliaritableness ;  for  they 
unchurched  the  whole  Christian  world  on  a  question 
of  mere  form,  Lutheran  and  Calvinist  as  well  as  the 
conforming  churchmen.  No  one  could  be  a  follower 
of  Christ  unless  he  was  a  mutterer  of  their  pecuHar 
shibboleth. 

Broionism  was  the  counterpart  of  Whitgift's 
rigid  uniformity.  The  lesson  which  the  prelates 
taught  these  sectaries  learned,  "not  wisely,  but 
too  well." 

The  principles  of  the  "Beownists"  agreed  in 
some  respects  with  the  rationale  of  Puritanism.^ 
But  with  the  impudent  intolerance  of  that  narrow 
sect  the  Puritans  did  not  sympathize.  They  recog- 
nized the  brotherhood  of  the  EvangeHcals ;  they  fel- 
lowshipped  Lutherans  and  Calvinists ;  they  would 
gladly  have  fellowshipped  the  English  Conformists, 
had  not  the  bishops  written  "hoKer  than  thou" 

after  a  life  of  vicissitudes,  he  finally  died  in  jail,  where  he  had  been 
imprisoned  for  assaulting  a  constable.  Pagett's  Heresiography ; 
Collier,  Eccl.  Hist.,  part  2,  book  7 ;  Strype,  Annals,  vol.  2,  etc. 

♦  Neale,  vol  1,  pp.  205,  206.  t  Ibid. 

X  Ibid.,  Newell,  Hopkins,  Strype,  etc. 


NOTES  BY  THE  WAY. 


189 


( 


)^' 


T, 


across  the  forehead  of  the  church.  Even  the  "  Sep- 
aratists" did  not  deny  that  the  English  church  was 
a  true  church,  though  they  quarrelled  with  its  cere- 
monial law. 

The  government,  like  a  true  inquisitor,  hstened 
to  every  idle  story  of  its  scouts ;  and  when  EHza- 
beth  learned  that  the  Brownists  held  some  of  the 
tenets  of  Puritanism,  she  forgot  that,  since  they 
subscribed  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  they  also 
agreed  in  some  things  with  the  bishops;  so,  anx- 
ious to  father  on  the  dissenters  all  obnoxious  isms, 
she  termed  the  Brownists  Puritans,  as  she  had 
already  the  "Familists,"  and  anathematized  them 
all  through  new  statutes.  Three  men,  convicted  of 
scattering  Beoavnist  pamphlets  through  the  king- 
dom, "were  murdered  under  the  forms  of  law;"* 
and  complacent  bishops  culled  objectionable  pas- 
sages from  the  tabooed  books  to  prove  the  danger- 
ous tendency  of  Puritanism.f 

"  The  children  of  this  world  are,  in  their  genera- 
tion, wiser  than  the  children  of  light."t  "Rome 
understands,  what  no  other  church  has  ever  under- 
stood, how  to  deal  with  enthusiasts.  In  some  sects, 
particularly  in  infant  sects,  enthusiasm  is  permitted 
to  be  rampant.  In  other  sects,  especially  in  those 
long  established  and  richly  endowed,  it  is  regarded 
with  aversion.  Rome  neither  submits  to  enthusi- 
asm nor  proscribes  it ;  she  uses  it.  She  considers  it 
as  a  great  moving  force,  in  itself  neither  good  nor 

*  Newell,  p.  192 ;  Fuller,  Hopkins,  Neale,  Strype,  Collier,  etc. 
t  Ibid.  ^  Luke  14:8. 


190 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 


bad,  but  which  may  be  so  directed  as  to  produce 
great  good  or  great  evil.  She  knows  that  when 
religious  feelings  have  obtained  the  complete  em- 
pire of  the  mind,  they  impart  a  strange  energy ;  that 
they  raise  men  above  the  dominion  of  pain  and 
pleasure ;  that  obloquy  becomes  glory ;  that  death 
itself  is  contemplated  only  as  the  beginning  of  a 
higher  and  happier  life.  She  knows  that  a  person 
in  this  state  is  no  object  of  contempt.  He  may  bo 
vulgar,  ignorant,  visionary,  extravagant ;  but  he  will 
do  and  suffer  things  which  it  is  for  her  interest  that 
somebody  should  do  and  suffer,  yet  from  which  calm 
and  sober-minded  men  shrink.  She  accordingly 
enlists  him  in  her  service,  assigns  to  him  some  for- 
lorn hope,  in  which  intrepidity  and  impetuosity  are 
more  wanted  than  judgment  and  self-command,  and 
sends  him  forth  with  her  benediction  and  applause. 

"For  a  man  thus  minded  there  was  no  place 
within  the  pale  of  the  Establishment.  If  he  could 
not  COD  form  in  every  non-essential  trifle,  he  must 
be  gagged.  If  he  desired  to  be  a  teacher,  he  must 
begin  by  being  a  schismatic.  His  choice  was  soon 
made.  A  congregation  was  formed.  A  plain  build- 
ing, with  a  desk  and  benches,  was  run  up,  and  named 
Ebenezer  or  Bethel,  and  in  a  few  weeks  the  church 
had  lost  by  her  narrowness  a  hundred  families,  not 
one  of  which  entertained  the  least  scruple  about  her 
articles,  or  possibly  about  her  government,  but  who 
were  driven  to  separate  through  affection  for  their 
pastor,  or  through  disgust  at  his  ill-usage. 

"Far  wiser  is  the  Roman  polity.     Even  for 


NOTES  BY  THE  WAY. 


191 


female  agency  there  is  a  place  in  her  system.  To 
devout  women  Eome  assigns  spiritual  functions, 
dignities,  and  magistracies.  In  most  Protestant 
countries,  if  a  noble  lady  is  moved  by  more  than 
ordinary  zeal  for  the  propagation  of  religion,  the 
chance  is  that,  though  she  may  disapprove  of  no 
one  doctrine  of  the  established  church,  she  will  end 
by  giving  her  name  to  a  new  schism.  If  a  pious 
and  benevolent  woman  enters  the  cells  of  a  prison 
to  pray  with  the  most  unhappy  and  degraded  of 
her  sex,  she  does  so  without  any  authority  from  the 
church.  No  line  of  action  is  traced  out  for  her; 
and  it  is  well  if  the  ordinary  does  not  complain  of 
her  intrusion,  and  if  the  bishop  does  not  shake  his 
head  at  such  irregular  benevolence.  At  Rome,  the 
countess  of  Huntingdon  would  have  a  place  in  the 
calendar  as  St.  Selina,  and  Mrs.  Fry  would  be  foun- 
dress and  first  superior  of  the  Blessed  Order  of  Sis- 
ters of  the  jails. 

"  Place  Ignatius  Loyola  at  Oxford.  He  is  cer- 
tain to  become  the  head  of  a  formidable  secession. 
Place  John  Wesley  at  Rome.  He  is  sure  to  become 
the  first  general  of  a  new  society  devoted  to  the 
interests  and  honor  of  the  church.  Place  St.  The- 
resa in  London.  Her  restless  enthusiasm  ferments 
into  madness,  not  untinctured  with  craft.  She 
becomes  a  prophetess,  the  mother  of  the  faithful, 
holds  disputations  with  the  devil,  and  issues  sealed 
pardons  to  her  adorers.  Place  Joanna  Southcote 
at  Rome.  She  founds  an  order  of  barefooted  Car- 
melites, every  one  of  whom  is  ready  to  suffer  mar- 


192 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  TUDORS. 


tyrdom  for  the  cliurcli ;  a  solemn  service  is  conse- 
crated to  her  memory ;  and  her  statue,  placed  over 
the  holy  water,  strikes  the  eye  of  every  stranger 
who  enters  St.  Peter's."* 

Now,  whether  we  fully  accept  this  philosophy 
or  not,  enough  of  it  is  true  to  prove  this,  that  Prot- 
estantism cannot  afford,  in  its  conflict  with  Satan, 
to  throw  away  as  despicable  any  useful  agencies ; 
and  that  the  church  militant  should  be  as  cunning 
to  save  souls,  as  sinful  human  nature  is  to  waste  and 
destroy  them. 

*  Macauley,  Essay  on  Kanke's  History  of  the  Popes,  Edinbnrg 
Review,  October,  1840. 


103 


J 


CHAPTEK  XIV. 

THE  LAST  OF   THE  TUDORS. 

The  lapse  of  time  wrought  no  alleviation  in  the 
persecution  of  the  Puritans.  Eigid  coercion  was 
still  the  motto  and  the  aspiration  of  the  govern- 
ment.* One  generation  bequeathed  to  another  the 
same  fatal  legacy  of  patient  suffering  for  conscience' 
sake. 

But  England  at  large  did  not  sympathize  with 
the  arbitrary  measures  of  the  court.  A  silent  rev- 
olution was  maturing.  Many  ministers,  banished 
from  the  pulpit,  were  welcomed  as  domestic  chap- 
lains and  private  tutors  into  the  families  of  the 
middle  classes  and  the  gentry.  Here  they  were 
protected  against  oppression,  and  in  this  seclusion 
they  found  leisure  to  imbue  the  rising  spirits  of  the 
epoch  with  their  own  hatred  of  tyranny,  and  passion 
for  religious  and  political  Hberty.t 

It  was  in  these  nurseries  that  the  cradle  of  the 
"  great  rebellion  "  was  rocked. 

Yet,  singularly  enough,  throughout  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth  there  was  n  ot  one  Puritan  emeute.  Though 
banned  and  hunted,  scourged  and  starved  and  burn-' 
ed,  they  never  once  were'  driven  to  rebel.  Obeying 
their  Master's  requisition,  when  smitten  upon  one 
cheek,  they  turned  the  other  also.t 


0  Newell,  p.  185 ;  Hopkins,  Strype. 

1  Matthew  5: 39. 

Pnrlfonn.  Q 


t  Ibid. 


194        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


But  if  the  Puritans  were  patient,  the  Komanists 
were  not.  No  sooner  was  the  cobweb  of  one  plot 
swept  down  than  they  spun  another.  "  They  dif- 
fered as  hot  and  cold  poison;  the  Jesuits  more 
active  and  pragmatical,  the  seculars  more  slow  and 
[heavy,  but  both  maintaining  treacherous  princi- 
ples, destructive  to  the  commonwealth."* 

In  1586  the  papists  were  peculiarly  active. 
Elizabeth's  recent  execution  of  the  queen  of  Scots 
had  stirred  the  Yatican  to  venomous  rage.t  The 
Eomanists  of  Europe  determined  to  make  one  gi- 
gantic effort  to  strangle  English  Protestantism. 
Spain  was  selected  as  the  avenger  of  the  faith. 
This  was  fit.  The  crusades  had  been  merely  an 
episode  in  the  history  of  other  nations.  Her  whole 
existence  had  been  a  crusade.  It  was  proper,  there- 
fore, that  Spain  should  lead  this  assault.  The  "In- 
vincible Armada  "  was  launched.^ 

"Now,"  says  Fuller,  "began  that  fatal  year, 
generally  foretold  that  it  would  be  wonderful,  as  it 
proved  no  less.  Whence  the  astrologers  fetched 
their  intelligence,  whether  from  heaven  or  hell, 
from  other  stars,  or  from  Lucifer  alone,  is  uncer- 
tain. This  is  most  certain,  that  their  prediction, 
though  hitting  the  mark,  yet  missed  their  meaning 
who  both  first  reported  and  most  believed  it. 

"  Out  came  this  invincible  navy  and  army,  per- 
fectly appointed  for  both  elements,  water  and  land, 
to  sail  and  march  complete  in  all  warlike  equipage, 


•  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  152. 
t  Hume,  Neale,  Burnet. 


X  Ibid. 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  TUDORS. 


195 


so  that  formerly,  with  far  less  provision,  they  had 
conquered  another  world.  Mighty  was  the  bulk  of 
their  ships,  the  sea  seeming  to  groan  under  them, 
being  a  burden  to  it  as  they  went,  and  to  them- 
selves as  they  returned,  with  all  manner  of  artillery, 
prodigious  in  number  and  greatness,  so  that  the 
report  of  their  guns  does  still  and  ought  ever  to 
sound  in  the  ears  of  the  English,  not  to  fright  them 
with  any  terror,  but  to  fill  them  with  deserved 
thankfulness. 

"  It  is  said  of  Sennacherib,  coming  against  Jeru- 
salem with  his  numerous  army,  *  By  the  way  that 
he  came  shall  he  return,  and  shall  not  come  into 
this  city,  saith  the  Lord.'*  As  the  latter  part  of 
this  old  prediction  was  verified  here,  no  Spaniard 
setting  foot  on  English  ground  under  other  notion 
than  a  prisoner,  so  God  did  not  them  the  honor  to 
return  the  same  way;  who  coming  by  south-east,  a 
way  they  knew,  went  back  by  south-west,  a  way 
they  sought,  chased  by  our  ships  past  the  forty- 
seventh  degree  of  northern  latitude,  then  and  there 
left  to  be  pursued  after  by  cold  and  hunger. 

"  Thus  having  proved  the  English  valor  in  con- 
quering them,  the  Scotch  constancy  in  not  relieving 
them,  the  Irish  cruelty  in  barbarously  butchering 
them,  the  small  reversion  of  this  great  navy  which 
came  home  might  be  looked  upon  by  religious  eyes 
as  relics,  not  for  tlie  adoration,  but  instruction  of 
their  nation  hereafter,  not  to  account  any  thing  in- 
vincible  which  is  less  than  infinite,'' -f 

•  2  Kings  19 :  33.  t  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  97. 


196 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


Camden  and  others  have  complained  that,  at 
this  time,  while  England  was  under  arms  to  defeat 
the  Spaniard,  the  Puritans  were  factious,  "  dispers- 
ing pamphlets  against  the  church  and  the  prelates 
in  the  height  of  a  common  danger."*  But  it  seems 
that  these  writings  went  merely  to  show  that  "  the 
danger  of  the  return  of  popery,  of  which  all  men 
were  then  apprehensive,  arose  largely  from  stop- 
ping the  mouths  of  those  ministers  who  were  most 
zealous  against  it.  It  had  been  easy  at  that  time 
to  have  distressed  the  government,  but  the  Puri- 
tans on  both  sides  of  the  Tweed  were  more  afi*aid 
of  the  triumph  of  Kome  than  their  adversaries. 
Those  in  Scotland  entered  into  an  association  to 
assemble  in  arms,  at  what  time  and  place  their 
king  should  require,  to  assist  the  queen  of  England 
against  the  common  foe,t  while  their  brothers  in 
London  seized  the  opportunity  to  petition  the 
queen  to  release  their  preachers,  that  the  people 
might  be  better  instructed  in  the  duty  of  obedience 
to  their  civil  governors,  and  not  be  left  a  prey  to 
priests  and  Jesuits,  who  were  traitors  to  her  maj- 
esty and  to  the  state.  But  Elizabeth  returned  no 
answer ;  she  was  content  to  jeopard  the  Eeforma- 
tion  rather  than  relieve  the  Puritans.^ 

Through  these  eventful  years  Sunday  was  much 
profaned,  by  the  encouragement  of  plays  and  sports 
in  the  evening,  and  sometimes  in  the  afternoon. 

•  "Ut  extemo  bello  sic  etiam  intemo  schismate  hoc  tempore 
laboravit  Anglia,"  etc.     Camden.  f  Hume,  Lingard,  etc. 

I  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  259. 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  TUDORS. 


197 


On  one  occasion  a  Puritan  divine,  in  a  sermon  be- 
fore the  university  of  Cambridge,  impeached  the 
lawfulness  of  these  games,  on  which  he  was  cited 
before  the  vice -chancellor.  Here  the  preacher 
maintained  that  the  Sabbath  ought  to  be  observed 
by  an  abstinence  from  all  worldly  business,  and 
spent  in  works  of  piety  and  charity,  though  he  did 
not  apprehend*  that  Christians  were  bound  to  the 
strictness  of  the  Jewish  precepts.* 

"  The  Parliament,"  says  Neale,  "  had  taken  this 
matter  into  consideration,  and  passed  a  bill  for  the 
better  and  more  reverent  observance  of  the  Sab- 
bath, which  the  speaker  of  the  Commons  recom- 
mended to  the  queen  in  an  elegant  speech.  But 
her  majesty  refused  to  sign  it,  under  pretence  of 
not  suffering  the  Parliament  to  meddle  with  mat- 
ters of  religion,  which  she  considered  her  sole  pre- 
rogative. However,  the  thing  appeared  so  reason- 
able, that  without  the  sanction  of  a  law  the  idea 
grew  into  esteem  with  all  sober  persons."t 

A  few  years  later  the  Sabbatarian  controversy 
was  again  kindled.  A  Puritan  pamphlet  was  pub- 
lished, in  which  it  was  urged  that  morality  required 
the  reservation  of  a  seventh  part  of  the  time  for 
worship ;  that  Christians  were  bound  to  rest  upon 
Sunday  as  much  as  the  Jews  were  on  the  Mosaical 
Sabbath,  the  commandment  of  rest  being  moral  and 
perpetual,  and  that  therefore  it  was  not  lawful  to  fol- 
low studies  or  worldly  business  on  that  day,  nor  to  use 
such  recreations  as  were  proper  through  the  week.  J 

o  Neale,  vol  1,  p.  249.  f  I^id.  %  Ibid.,  p.  298. 


198 


HISTOEY  or  THE  PUEITANS. 


"  This  book  had  a  wonderful  spread  among  the 
people,  and  wrought  a  mighty  reformation ;  so  that 
the  Lord's  day,  which  used  to  be  profaned  by  inter- 
ludes, May-games,  morrice-danees,  and  other  gay 
sports,  began  to  be  kept  more  precisely.  All  the 
Puritans  fell  in  with  this  rule,  and  distinguished 
themselves  by  spending  that  part  of  sacred  time  in 
public,  family,  and  private  acts  of  devotion,  which 
the  governing  clergy  exclaimed  against  as  a  re- 
straint of  rational  liberty. 

"  Archbishop  Whitgift  called  in  all  the  copies 
of  this  pamphlet,  by  his  letters  and  officers  at  syn- 
ods and  visitations,  and  forbade  it  to  be  reprinted. 
The  Lord  Chief-justice  Popham  did  the  same,  both 
of  them  declaring  that  the  Sabbath  doctrine  talHed 
neither  with  the  doctrine  of  the  church,  nor  with 
the  laws  and  order  of  the  kingdom ;  that  it  dis- 
turbed the  peace  of  the  commonwealth  and  of  the 
church,  tending  to  sedition  in  the  one  and  to  schism 
in  the  other;"*  spite  of  all  which  the  book  was  still 
read  privately,  and  in  greater  demand  than  before 
the  governmental  raid  upon  it.f 

The  year  1591  was  rendered  memorable  by  the 
new  phase  which  the  controversy  between  Puritan- 
ism and  the  churchmen  then  put  on.  The  occasion 
of  this  change  of  base  was  a  disputation  between 
two  famous  clergymen.  Fuller  has  left  so  quaint 
an  account  of  this  matter,  that  we  subjoin,  but 
somewhat  abridge  it : 

"Now  began  the  heat  and  height  of  the  sad 

•  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  298.  f  ibid,  p.  299. 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  TUDORS. 


199 


contest  between  Eichard  Hooker,  master,  and  Wal- 
ter Travers,  lecturer,  of  the  Temple.  We  will  be 
larger  in  the  relating  thereof,  because  we  behold 
their  actions,  not  as  the  deeds  of  private  persons, 
but  as  the  public  champions  of  their  party.  Now 
as  an  army  is  but  a  champion  diffused,  so  a  cham- 
pion may  be  said  to  be  an  anny  contracted.  The 
prelatical  party  wrought  to  the  height  in  and  for 
Hooker ;  nor  was  the  puritanical  power  less  active 
in  assisting  Travers;  both  sides  being  glad  that 
they  had  gotten  two  such  eminent  leaders,  with 
whom  they  might  engage  with  such  credit  to  their 
cause. 

"  Hooker  was  born  in  Devonshire,  bred  in  Ox- 
ford, one  of  a  solid  judgment  and  great  reading; 
yea,  such  the  depth  of  his  learning,  that  his  pen 
was  a  better  bucket  than  his  tongue  to  draw  it  out ; 
a  great  defender,  both  by  preaching  and  writing,  of 
the  church  of  England.  Spotless  was  his  conver- 
sation ;  and  though  some  dirt  was  cast,  none  could 
stick  on  his  reputation. 

"Travers  was  brought  up  in  Trinity  college, 
Cambridge,  where  meeting  with  some  discontents, 
he  took  occasion  to  travel  beyond  seas,  and  coming 
to  Geneva,  contracted  familiarity  with  Beza  and 
other  foreign  divines,  with  whom  he  by  letters  con- 
tinued correspondence  till  his  death.  Then  return- 
ed he,  and  commenced  bachelor  of  divinity  in  Cam- 
bridge; and  after  that  passed  beyond  sea  again, 
and  at  Antwerp  was  ordained  minister  by  the  pres- 
bytery there.    After  some  time  spent  in  preaching 


200 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


with  Cartwi-ight  unto  the  English  factory  of  mer- 
chants at  Antwerp,  he  at  last  came  over  into  Eng- 
land, and  for  seven  years  together  became  lecturer 
in  the  Temple,  refusing  all  presentative  preferment, 
to  decline  subscription,  and  lived  domestic  chaplain 
in  the  house  of  the  Lord-treasurer  Cecil,  being  tutor 
for  a  time  to  Eobert  his  son,  afterwards  earl  of  Sal- 
isbury. Although  there  was  much  heaving  and 
shoving  at  him,  as  one  disaffected  to  the  discipline, 
yet  God's  goodness,  his  friend's  greatness,  and  his 
own  honesty,  kept  him,  but  with  much  difficulty,  in 
his  ministerial  employment. 

"  Yea,  so  great  grew  the  credit  and  reputation 
of  Travers,  that  he  and  Cartwright  were  solemnly 
sent  for  to  be  divinity  professors  in  the  university 
of  St.  Andrew's,  in  Scotland.  This  proffer  both 
refused,  with  return  of  their  most  affectionate 
thanks.  In  plain  truth,  they  were  loath  to  leave, 
and  their  friends  were  loath  to  be  left  by  them,  con- 
ceiving their  pains  might  as  well  be  bestowed  in 
their  native  country ;  and  Travers  quietly  continued 
lecturer  at  the  Temple  till  Hooker  became  master 
thereof. 

"  Hooker's  voice  was  low,  stature  little,  gesture 
none  at  all,  standing  stone-still  in  the  pulpit,  as  if 
the  posture  of  his  body  were  the  emblem  of  his 
mind,  immovable  as  his  opinions.  Where  his  eye 
was  left  fixed  at  the  beginning,  it  was  found  fixed 
at  the  end  of  his  sermon.  In  a  word,  the  doctrine 
he  delivered  had  nothing  but  itself  to  garnish  it. 
His  style  was  long  and  pithy,  driving  on  a  whole 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  TUDORS. 


201 


flock  of  clauses  before  he  came  to  the  close  of  a 
sentence.  So  that  when  the  copiousness  of  his 
style  met  not  with  proportionable  capacity  in  his 
auditors,  it  was  unjustly  censured  as  perplexed, 
tedious,  and  obscure.  His  sermons  followed  the 
inclination  of  his  studies,  and  were  for  the  most 
part  on  controversies  and  deep  points  of  school- 
divinity. 

"  Travers'  utterance  was  graceful,  gestures  plaus- 
ible, matter  profitable,  method  plain,  and  his  style 
carried  in  it  indolem  pietatis,  'a  genius  of  grace' 
flowing  from  his  sanctified  heart.  Some  say  that 
the  congregation  in  the  Temple  ebbed  in  the  fore- 
noon and  flowed  in  the  afternoon,  and  that  the  au- 
ditory of  Travers  was  far  the  most  numerous — the 
first  occasion  of  emulation  between  them.  But 
both  were  too  wise  to  take  exception  at  such 
trifles. 

"  Here  might  one  on  Sundays  have  seen  almost 
as  many  writers  as  hearers.  Not  only  young  stu- 
dents, but  even  the  gravest  benchers,  such  as  Sir 
Edward  Coke  and  Sir  James  Altham  then  were, 
were  not  more  exact  in  taking  instructions  from 
their  chents,  than  in  writing  notes  from  the  mouths 
of  these  preachers.  The  worst  was,  that  though 
joined  in  affinity — their  nearest  kindred  being 
joined  together — Hooker  and  Travers  acted  on  dif- 
ferent principles,  and  clashed  one  against  another; 
so  that  what  Hooker  delivered  in  the  forenoon, 
Travers  confuted  in  the  afternoon.  At  the  build- 
ing of  Solomon's  temple,  *  neither  hammer  nor  axe 

9* 


202 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


nor  tool  of  iron  was  heard  tlierein;'*  whereas,  alas, 
in  this  Temple  not  only  much  knocking  was  heard, 
but,  which  was  worse,  the  nails  and  pins  which  one 
master-builder  drove  in  were  driven  out  by  the 
other.  To  pass  by  lesser  differences  between  them 
about  predestination,  Hooker  maintained  that  the 
church  of  Kome,  though  not  a  pure  and  perfect, 
yet  is  a  true  church ;  so  that  such  as  live  and  die 
therein,  upon  repentance  of  all  sins  of  ignorance, 
may  be  saved.  Travers  maintained  that  the  church 
of  Eome  was  no  true  church ;  so  that  such  as  live 
and  die  therein,  holding  justification  by  works,  can- 
not be  said  by  the  Scriptures  to  be  saved. 

"  Thus  much  disturbance  was  caused ;  and  here 
Archbishop  AVhitgift  interposed  his  power,  and 
silenced  Travers  from  preaching  either  in  the  Tem- 
ple or  anywhere  else.  It  was  laid  to  his  charge 
that  he  was  no  lawful  ordained  minister  according 
to  the  church  of  England ;  that  he  preached  here 
without  license ;  that  he  had  broken  the  order  made 
in  the  seventh  year  of  her  majesty's  reign,  wherein 
it  was  provided  that  erroneous  doctrine,  if  it  came 
to  be  publicly  taught,  should  not  be  publicly  refut- 
ed, but  that  notice  thereof  should  be  given  to  the 
ordinary,  to  hear  and  determine  such  causes. 

"  As  for  Travers'  silencing,  many  who  were  well 
pleased  with  the  deed  done,  were  offended  at  the 
manner  of  doing  it ;  for  all  the  congregation  on  a 
Sabbath  in  the  afternoon  were  assembled,  their 
attention  prepared,  the  cloth,  as  I  may  say,  and 

*  1  Kings  6  : 7. 


/ 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  TUDORS. 


203 


I 


napkins  were  laid,  yea,  the  guests  were  set,  and 
their  knives  drawn  for  their  spiritual  repast,  when 
suddenly,  as  Travers  was  going  into  the  pulpit,  a 
sorry  fellow  served  him  with  a  letter,  prohibiting 
him  to  preach  any  more.  In  obedience  to  author- 
ity— the  mild  and  constant  submission  whereunto 
won  him  respect  with  his  adversaries — Travers 
calmly  signified  the  same  to  the  congregation,  and 
requested  them  quietly  to  depart  to  their  chambers. 
Thus  was  our  good  Zacharias  struck  dumb  in  the 
Temple,  but  not  for  infidelity.  Meantime  his  audi- 
tory, pained  that  their  pregnant  expectation  to  hear 
him  preach  should  prove  so  publicly  abortive,  and 
sent  sermonless  home,  manifested  a  variety  of  pas- 
sion, some  grieving,  some  fuming,  some  murmur- 
ing ;  and  the  wisest  sort,  who  held  their  tongues, 
shook  their  heads,  as  disliking  the  managing  of  the 
matter., 

"  Travers  addressed  himself  by  petition  to  the 
lords  of  the  Privy-council,  where  his  strength  lay, 
as  Hooker's  in  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and 
the  High  Commission,  grievously  complaining  that 
he  was  punished  before  he  was  heard,  silenced — by 
him  apprehended  the  heaviest  penalty — before  sent 
for,  contrary  to  equity  and  reason :  *  The  law  con- 
demning none  before  it  hear  him,  and  know  what 
he  hath  done.'* 

•  John  7  :  51.  *'To  the  exception  against  the  lawfuhiess  of  his 
ministry,  he  pleaded  that  the  communion  of  saints  allows  ordina- 
tion legal  in  any  Christian  church.  Orders  herein  are  like  de- 
grees ;  and  a  doctor  graduated  in  any  university  hath  his  title  and 
place  granted  him  in  all  Christendom.     For  want  of  license  to 


204 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


"  The  council-chamber  was  much  divided  about 
Travers'  petition.  All  Whitgif  t's  foes  were  ipso  facto 
made  Travers'  favorers;  besides,  he  had  a  large 
stock  of  friends  on  his  own  account.  But  Whit- 
gift's  finger  moved  more  in  church  affairs  than  all 
the  hands  of  all  the  privy-councillors  besides ;  and 
he  was  content  to  suffer  others  to  be  believed — and 
perchance  to  believe  themselves — great  actors  in 
church  government,  while  he  knew  he  could  and 
did  do  all  things  himself  therein. 

"Thus  Travers,  notwithstanding  the  plenty  of 
his  potent  friends,  was  overborne  by  the  archbish- 
op, and  as  he  often  complained,  could  never  obtain 
to  be  brought  to  a  fair  hearing.  But  his  grief  hereat 
was  something  abated  when  Adam  Loftus,  arch- 
bishop of  Dublin  and  chancellor  of  Ireland,  his  an- 
cient colleague  in  Cambridge,  invited  him  over  to 
be  provost  of  Trinity  college  in  Dublin.  Embracing 
the  motion,  over  he  went,  accepting  the  place ;  and 
he  continued  some  years  therein,  till  discomposed 
by  their  civil  wars,  he  returned  into  England,  and 
lived  here  many  years  very  obscurely — though  in 
himself  a  shining  light — as  to  the  matter  of  out- 
ward appearance.  Sometimes  he  did  preach,  rather 
when  he  durst  than  when  he  would  ;  debarred  from 
all  cure  of  souls  by  his  non-conformity.    Yet  had 

preach,  he  pleaded  that  he  was  recommended  to  this  place  of  the 
Temple  by  two  letters  of  the  bishop  of  London,  the  diocesan 
thereof.  His  anti-preaching  in  the  afternoon,  against  what  was 
delivered  before,  he  excused  by  the  example  of  Paul,  who  *  gave 
not  place  to  Peter,  no,  not  for  an  hour,  that  the  truth  of  the  gospel 
might  continue  among  them.'"    Gal.  2  : 5.     Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  130. 


/!• 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  TUDORS. 


205 


he  Agur's  wish,  *  neither  poverty  nor  riches,'  though 
his  enough  seemed  to  be  of  shortest  size.  It  mat- 
ters not  whether  men's  means  be  mounted,  or  their 
minds  descend,  so  it  be  that  both  meet,  as  here  in 
him,  in  a  comfortable  contentment."* 

From  this  narrative  it  should  seem  that,  even  so 
early  as  the  year  1591,  the  question  at  issue  be- 
tween Puritanism  and  the  Establishment  had  radi- 
cally changed.  It  was  no  longer  a  dispute  about 
the  accidentals  of  bishops ;  it  began  to  broaden 
into  a  quarrel  upon  fundamentals. 

"This  also,"  says  a  recent  churchman,  "was 
the  course  which  the  argument  took  on  the  church 
side.  The  church  theologians  gradually  changed 
their  ground,  so  that  there  is  a  wide  difference 
between  the  school  of  Whitgift  and  Hooker,  and 
that  of  Bilson,  Hall,  and  Laud.  At  first  all  that 
was  contended  for  was,  that  episcopacy  was  per- 
missible, and  not  against  the  Scriptures;  that  it 
was  a  church  government  ancient  and  allowable. 
This  was  held  by  Jewel,  Whitgift,  Cooper,  and  oth- 
ers ;  but  these  divines  did  not  venture  to  urge  its 
exclusive  claims,  or  to  connect  the  succession  with 
the  vaHdity  of  the  sacraments." t 

In  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  remarks  this  same 
historian,  "  the  real  point  at  issue  was  not  a  ques- 
tion of  conscience,  but  whether  Puritans  should  be 
suffered  to  hold  preferment  in  the  church  in  open 
defiance  of  the  requirements  of  the  law.":^   He  then 


♦  FuUer,  vol.  3,  pp.  124-132. 

t  Perry,  Hist,  of  Ch.  of  Eng.,  p.  19. 


X  Ibid.,  p.  17. 


206 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


proceeds  to  say  tliat  "  the  Puritan  clergy  are  fully 
chargeable  with  having  shown  a  bitter  and  litigious 
spirit;"  that,  "taking  as  indulgent  a  view  as  possi- 
ble of  them,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they  were  em- 
inently provoking;"  that  "they  fought  factiously, 
and  they  fought  unfairly ;"  and  that  "  their  steady 
obstinacy  required  and  excused  the  severity  of 
Whitgift."* 

When  this  historian  looked  back  across  two 
hundred  years  to  scrutinize  the  most  momentous 
page  of  our  English  annals,  he  was  either  bhnded 
by  partiality,  or  else,  under  the  influence  of  a  dose 
of  hellebore,  he  really  dozed  while  he  seemed  to 
see. 

No ;  his  statement  does  not  cover  what  lawyers 
call  the  gist  of  the  great  quarrel.  The  question  at 
issue  was,  tvhether  or  not  conscientious  non-conformity 
in  tilings  which  the  ivfiposers  held  indifferent,  hut  which 
the  Puritans  esteemed  vitally  injurious,  should  bar 
Christians  from  the  right  to  tvorship  God, 

It  is  easy  to  say  that  "  ministers  declining  to 
conform  might  retire  from  the  church. "t  But  this 
latitude  Elizabeth  would  not  allow,  as  witness  the 
history  of  her  whole  reign.  All  non-conformists, 
whether  within  or  without  the  church,  were  harried 
with  indiscriminate  fierceness.  The  possibiHty  of 
independence  was  not  recognized.  The  govern- 
ment drove  all  men  by  statute  into  the  bosom  of 
the  Establishment,  and  then  compelled  them  by 
penal  legislation  to   subscribe.     Dissenters  were 

*  Perry,  pp.  16,  17,  passim.  f  Il>id'»  P*  17. 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  TUDORS. 


207 


outlawed.  Every  weapon  that  wit  could  devise 
and  that  ingenuity  could  shape  was  employed  to 
coerce  consciences.  Men  were  gagged,  starved, 
and  burned  into  uniformity.  So  searching  was  the 
proscription,  that  a  scholar  might  not  obtain  a 
license  to  teach  school  without  previous  subscrip- 
tion.* Therefore  it  was  as  dangerous  for  a  papist 
to  mutter  mass,  or  for  a  separatist  to  exhort,  axs  it 
was  f^r  a  non- conforming  churchman,  standing 
within  the  temple,  "to  hint  a  fault,  and  hesitate 
dislike."  _ 

8o  idle  is  it  to  run  a  muck  at  the  Purit^HBII 
cause  they  did  not  all  secure  peace,  "  when  there 
was  no  peace,"  by  becoming  "  come-outers"  at  the 
commencement. 

Besides,  in  the  infancy  of  the  Establishment  it 
embraced  two  sorts  of  reformers.  One  class  clung 
tenaciously  to  the  old  ways  in  points  of  discipline, 
and  pleaded  usage  and  habit  in  their  behalf.  The 
other  class  loved  the  church  just  as  dearly,  but  they 
yearned  after  what  they  esteemed  a  simpler  and 
more  scriptural  pattern  of  church  government. 
Surely  there  was  here  no  occasion  for  gags  and 
autos  da  fL  It  was  a  case  for  arguments,  not  for 
executioners.  The  Establishment  was  still  plastic, 
had  not  yet  hardened  into  "  the  gristle  and  bone  of 
manhood,"  if  we  may  borrow  Burke's  phrase.  While 
there  was  a  chance  that  the  reformers  might  succeed 
in  moulding  the  nascent  discipline  into  conformity 
to  their  convictions,  they  were  neither  "factious" 

*  Newell,  p.  185 ;  Hopkins ;  Neale,  etc. 


206        HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 

proceeds  to  say  that  "  the  Puritan  clergy  are  fully 
chargeable  with  having  shown  a  bitter  and  litigious 
spirit;"  that,  "taking  as  indulgent  a  view  as  possi- 
ble of  them,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they  were  em- 
inently provoking;"  that  "they  fought  factiously, 
and  they  fought  unfairly ;"  and  that  "  their  steady 
obstinacy  required  and  excused  the  severity  of 
Whitgift."* 

When  this  historian  looked  back  across  two 
hundred  years  to  scrutinize  the  most  momentous 
page  of  our  English  annals,  he  was  either  bhnded 
by  partiality,  or  else,  under  the  influence  of  a  dose 
of  hellebore,  he  really  dozed  while  he  seemed  to 
see. 

No ;  his  statement  does  not  cover  what  lawyers 
call  the  gist  of  the  great  quarrel.  The  question  at 
issue  was,  whether  or  not  conscientious  non-conformity 
in  things  which  the  imposers  held  indifferent,  but  which 
the  Puritans  esteemed  vitally  injurious,  should  bar 
Christians  from  the  right  to  worship  God, 

It  is  easy  to  say  that  "  ministers  declining  to 
conform  might  retire  from  the  church."t  But  this 
latitude  Elizabeth  would  not  allow,  as  witness  the 
history  of  her  whole  reign.  All  non-conformists, 
whether  within  or  without  the  church,  were  harried 
with  indiscriminate  fierceness.  The  possibility  of 
independence  was  not  recognized.  The  govern- 
ment drove  all  men  by  statute  into  the  bosom  of 
the  Establishment,  and  then  compelled  them  by 
penal  legislation  to  subscribe.  Dissenters  were 
•  Perry,  pp.  16,  17,  passim.  f  Ibid,  p.  17. 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  TUDORS. 


207 


outlawed.  Every  weapon  that  wit  could  devise 
and  that  ingenuity  could  shape  was  employed  to 
coerce  consciences.  Men  were  gagged,  starved, 
and  burned  into  uniformity.  So  searching  was  the 
proscription,  that  a  scholar  might  not  obtain  a 
license  to  teach  school  without  previous  subscrip- 
tion.^ Therefore  it  was  as  dangerous  for  a  papist 
to  mutter  mass,  or  for  a  separatist  to  exhort,  as  it 
was  f^r  a  non- conforming  churchman,  standing 
within  the  temple,  "to  hint  a  fault,  and  hesitate 
disHke." 

So  idle  is  it  to  run  a  muck  at  the  Puritans  be- 
cause they  did  not  all  secure  peace,  "  when  there 
was  no  peace,"  by  becoming  "  come-outers "  at  the 
commencement. 

Besides,  in  the  infancy  of  the  Establishment  it 
embraced  two  sorts  of  reformers.  One  class  clung 
tenaciously  to  the  old  ways  in  points  of  discipline, 
and  pleaded  usage  and  habit  in  their  behalf.  The 
other  class  loved  the  church  just  as  dearly,  but  they 
yearned  after  what  they  esteemed  a  simpler  and 
more  scriptural  pattern  of  church  government. 
Surely  there  was  here  no  occasion  for  gags  and 
autos  da  fe.  It  was  a  case  for  arguments,  not  for 
executioners.  The  Establishment  was  still  plastic, 
had  not  yet  hardened  into  "  the  gristle  and  bone  of 
manhood,"  if  we  may  borrow  Burke's  phrase.  While 
there  was  a  chance  that  the  reformers  might  succeed 
in  moulding  the  nascent  discipline  into  conformity 
to  their  convictions,  they  were  neither  "factious" 

♦  Newell,  p.  185 ;  Hopkins ;  Neale,  etc. 


*\ 


208 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  TUDORS. 


209 


.\ 


nor  "unfair"  in  struggling  earnestly  to  achieve  a 
result  which  they  honestly  believed  to  be  momen- 
tously important.  But  when  the  battle  had  gone 
hopelessly  against  them  wdthin  the  Establishment, 
then  it  was  time  to  think  of  separation ;  and  when 
convinced  of  this,  they  did  come  out  and  unite  with 
the  elder  separatists,  as  we  shall  see. 

It  may  be  remarked  en  passant,  that*  had  a  little 
latitude  been  permitted  at  the  outset,  the  gulf  would 
have  been  bridged;  no  Curtius  need  have  flung  in 
his  body  in  sad  after-years  in  a  vain  attempt  to  fill 
up  the  chasm. 

The  historian  upon  whom  we  have  been  animad- 
verting has  himself  penned  these  weighty  words : 
"  History  can  furnish  no  instance  of  ecclesiastical 
persons  wielding  temporal  power  usefully  and  prof- 
itably for  their  own  character  and  the  best  interests 
of  others.  At  any  rate,  the  history  of  this  period 
seems  charged  with  solemn  warning,  and  may  be 
held,  not  unreasonably,  to  prove  that,  for  a  church 
to  be  in  alliance  with  the  state  with  safety  and  profit, 
it  must  submit  to  be  intrusted  with  but  a  very  lim- 
ited amount  of  actual  power ;  and  that  the  full  ex- 
ercise of  ecclesiastical  discipline  can  never  coexist 
without  peril  with  the  position  of  a  church  upheld 
and  estabHshed  by  law.'** 

The  later  years  of  EHzabetli*s  reign  were  com- 
paratively calm.t  The  queen,  broken  by  age,  wea- 
ried by  care,  sorrowing  for  her  beheaded  favorites, 

«  Perry,  p.  66. 

t  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  152 ;  Hume,  Froude,  Burnet. 


had  lost  much  of  her  old  hauteur;  she  had  no  heart 
to  persecute.*  The  Scottish  king,  who  was  heir  to 
the  crown,  had  been  bred  a  Presbyterian,  and  this 
made  the  bishops  cautious  of  acting  with  their  pris- 
tine rancor  against  a  party  with  whom  the  incom- 
ing monarch  was  identified.t  The  Puritans,  tired, 
but  watchful,  *•' reposed  themselves  in  a  sad  silence,** 
believing  that 

•'Tliey  also  serve  who  only  stand  and  wait." 

At  length  the  event  occurred  which  England  sat 
breathlessly  awaiting.  On  the  24th  of  March,  1603, 
the  great  queen  lay  dead.  The  proud  mistress  of 
the  sea-girt  island,  the  pincher  of  consciences,  the 
trampler  on  the  fundamental  law  of  liberty — Nemo 
tenetur  seipsum  prodere — was  herseK  summoned  be- 
fore the  bar  of  the  infinite  Star-chamber  Court. 
The  muse  of  history  closed  and  sealed  the  record 
of  Elizabeth's  reign. 

•  Burnet's  Own  Times.  f  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  308. 


210        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


CHAPTEK  XV. 


THE  PEDANT  KING. 


The  crown  of  England  now  passed  from  the 
house  of  Tudor  by  escheat,  and  it  was  grasped  by 
the  Stuarts,  the  Bourbons  of  British  politics.  James 
I.  stooped  to  lift  the  sceptre  from  the  grave  of  Eliz- 
abeth. He  was  the  son  of  poor  Mary  Stuart,  and 
the  great-grandson  of  Margaret,  eldest  daughter  of 
Henry  YII.,  who  had  married  the  Scottish  king  in 
the  preceding  centur5^*  On  the  failure  of  the  male 
line,  his  hereditary  title  was  of  course  clean,  though 
the  most  eminent  of  the  English  constitutional  his- 
torians argues  elaborately  that  the  Stuarts'  claim 
was  based  less  upon  abstract  right  than  on  the  tacit 
popular  consent.t 

James  had  reigned  in  Scotland  from  his  infancy,  f 
He  brought  with  him  into  England  a  w  ife  and  three 
children.  The  eldest  of  these  children  did  not  live 
to  reach  his  majority ;  the  second,  a  daughter,  mar- 
ried abroad ;  and  the  other  was  the  famous  Prince 
Charles,  who  was  one  day  to  lose  his  head  under 
the  revolutionary  hatchet  of  the  commonwealth. 

The  new  king  had  been  bred  in  the  strictest 

•  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  120.  f  Hfdlam,  Con.  Hist.,  chap.  6. 

X  Calderwood,  True  Hist.  Church  of  Scotland,  p.  256 ;  Neale ; 
Perry. 


THE  PbDANT  KING. 


211 


school  of  Presbyterianism,  and  he  was  steeped  to 
the  Hps  in  oaths  to  maintain  the  Calvinistic  princi- 
ples.* He  had  subscribed  the  "  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant;"  and  recently,  standing  in  a  general  as- 
sembly at  Edinburgh,  with  bonnet  off  and  hands 
uplifted,  he  had  "  praised  God  that  he  was  king  of 
the  Scottish  church,  the  purest  kirk  in  the  world,  "t 

On  the  accession  of  such  a  monarch,  the  Puri- 
tans could  not  but  be  jubilant.  "Now,"  cried  they, 
as  they  met  in  the  market-place  or  congratulated 
each  other  on  the  side-walk,  "now  we  may  take 
Simeon's  prayer  upon  our  lips.  We  have  a  king 
who  >vill  at  least  ungag  the  pulpit  and  abate  the 
rigor  of  the  laws  which  ban  our  party." 

9ut  James'  disposition  had  taken  a  strong  con- 
trary bias.  "  The  more  he  knew  of  Puritanism,  the 
less  favor  he  bore  it.  He  had  remarked  in  the  Scot- 
tish church  a  violent  tendency  towards  republican- 
ism, and  a  zealous  attachment  to  civil  hberty,  prin- 
ciples nearly  allied  to  that  religious  enthusiasm  by 
which  its  members  were  actuated.  In  his  capacity 
of  monarch  and  in  his  role  of  theologian  he  had  ex- 
perienced the  little  complaisance  which  the  Puri- 
tans were  disposed  to  show  him ;  while  they  con- 
trolled his  commands,  disputed  his  pet  tenets,  and 
to  his  face,  before  assembled  Scotland,  censured 
his  government  and  his  personal  behavior.  This 
was  what  his  monarchical  pride  could  never  thor- 

*  Calderwood,  True  Hist.  Church  of  Scotland,  p.  256 ;  Neale ; 
Perry. 

f  Neale,  vol  1,  p.  318.    Calderwood. 


I 


212 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUBITANS. 


THE  PEDANT  KING. 


onghly  digest,"*  and  he  came  to  hate  his  reproving 
Nathan. 

He  was  no  sooner  firmly  seated  on  his  new 
throne  than,  reflecting  on  these  things,  he  decided 
to  give  the  bishops  the  right  hand  of  fellowship, 
and  to  flank  Puritanism  by  deserting  it.t  This 
course  was  made  easier  by  the  chorus  of  gross  adu- 
lation with  which  the  bishops  greeted  him.J  The 
vainest  of  men,  his  self-conceit  was  tickled  by  the 
most  hyperbolical  compliments.  The  most  pedan- 
tic of  kings,  his  weakness  was  pampered  by  the 
most  lavish  encomiums.  James  had  the  stomach 
of  an  ostrich  for  praise ;  no  panegyric  was  too  gross 
for  him  to  swallow.  In  Scotland  he  had  been  curb- 
ed; in  England  he  was  given  loose  reign.  Sycho- 
phancy,  so  new  and  so  fascinating,  quite  won  his 
heart. 

Of  course  James  had  no  honest  religious  .princi- 
ples. North  of  the  Tweed  he  was  a  Presbyterian, 
because  he  dared  be  nothing  else.  What  he  termed 
Ungcraft,  the  art  of  dissimulation,  the  science  of 
appearance,  the  finesse  of  empty  show,  of  which  he 
was  profound  master,  led  him  to  frequent  the  kirk 
in  Scotland,  to  become  a  rigid  churchman  in  Eng- 
land, and  it  would  have  made  hiin  a  mutterer  of  the 
mass  at  Kome.§  Indeed  Sir  Fjancis  Walsingham, 
who  had  studied  him  closely,  and  who  kept  his  ubi- 
quitous spies  at  Holyrood,  had  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  "  the  king  was  either  inclined  to  turn  Pa- 

•  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  123.  f  Perry,  p.  28." 

X  Ibid.,  p.  30.  §  Macauley's  Miscellaneous  Essays. 


213 


w 


pist  or  to  be  of  no  religion."^  He  was  "an  habit- 
ual swearer,  a  drunkard,  and  a  liar,"  says  Marsden;t 
and  Hallam  affirms  that  he  "  was  all  his  life  rather 
a  bold  liar  than  a  good  dissembler.''^ 

Such  was  his  "sacred  majesty"  king  James  I., 
as  he  has  been  painted  by  the  sober  pen  of  history. 

James  was  met  in  his  progress  to  London  by 
two  petitions.  One,  entitled  the  millenary  petition, 
because  it  was  said  to  have  been  subscribed  by  a 
thousand  hands,  was  presented  by  the  Puritans.§ 
In  it  a  reformation  of  certain  ceremonies  and  alleged 
abuses  was  urged.  The  other  bore  the  imprimatur 
of  Oxford ;  and  this  pleaded  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  statu  quo.\ 

When  the  king  reached  the  metropolis,  the  plague 
was  holding  a  ghastly /e^e;  and  the  citizens  were  so 
terror-stricken  that,  on  the  occasion  of  the  corona- 
tion, the  streets  "were  almost  desolate,  and  the 
pageants  stood  without  spectators  to  gaze  upon 
them."l 

But  when  these  horrors  had  abated,  and  James 
had  settled  himself  in  EHzabeth's  luxurious  chair 
of  state,  he  responded  to  the  inimical  petitions  by 
a  proclamation,  in  which  he  decreed  a  conference 
for  the  settlement  of  the  matters  in  dispute.** 

•  Burnet's  Own  Times,  p.  2. 

t  Marsden,  Early  Puritans,  p.  367.  See  Shent's  Ch.  History, 
sec.  523.  X  HaUam,  Con.  Hist.,  vol.  1,  p.  291. 

§  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  320 ;  Marsden,  Newell. 

II  Perry,  Keale,  Heglin,  etc. 

IT  Calderwood ;  Strype's  Whitgift. 

•*  Cardwell,  Documentary  Annals,  vol.  2.  Strype,  Life  of 
Whitgift,  p.  5G8. 


214         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


Of  this  order  was  born  the  famous  Conference 
of  Hampton  Court ;  and  in  January,  1604,  the  con- 
flicting parties  met  in  a  drawing-room  within  the 
privy  chamber  of  that  historic  palace,*  the  monu- 
ment of  Wolsey's  despotism  and  humiliation. 

The  Establishment  was  represented  by  nine  bish- 
ops, reinforced  by  the  same  number  of  lesser  digni- 
taries ;  and  of  these,  Whitgift  and  Bancroft  were 
the  leaders.t 

Four  ministers  of  the  king's  nomination^  were 
the  knight-errants  of  Puritanism  in  this  sorry  tilt ; 
and  Calderwood  complains  that  "  two  of  these  were 
not  sound,"  but  were  appointed  "  to  spy  and  pre- 
varicate."§ 

Eaynolds,  who  was  esteemed  by  his  contempo- 
raries the  most  learned  man  in  England,!!  was  the 
Atlas  who  bore  upon  his  shoulders  the  Puritan 
cause.  Wood,  after  an  elaborate  eulogy  on  this 
great  divine's  reading,  memory,  wit,  judgment,  in- 
dustry, probity,  and  sanctity  of  life,  closes  the  glow- 
ing record  thus :  "  In  a  word,  nothing  can  be  spoken 

*  Fuller,  vol.  3,  pp.  172,  173.     Burnet's  Own  Times. 

t  Ibid.  The  names  of  the  church  party  were,  Whitgift,  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  ;  Bancroft,  bishop  of  London  ;  bishops  Mat- 
thew,  Bilson,  Buffington,  Rudd,  Watson,  Robinson,  and  Dove ; 
and  of  lesser  dignitaries,  Bodeu,  dean  of  Chester ;  the  deans  of 
the  chapel-royal,  St.  Paul's,  SaUsbury,  Gloucester,  Worcester,  and 
Windsor,  and  the  archdeacon  of  Nottingham. 

t  These  names  were,  Drs.  John  Raynolds  and  Thomas  Sparks, 
professors  of  divinity  at  Oxford,  and  Drs.  Chadderton  and  Knew- 
Btubs,  professors  of  divinity  at  Cambridge. 

§  Calderwood,  p.  474. 

II  Newell,  p.  223.     Fuller. 


THE  PEDANT  KING. 


215 


against  him,  save  only  that  he  is  a  chief  pillar  of  Pu- 
ritanism, and  a  great  favorer  of  non-conformity.'*^ 

The  king,  fancying  himself  possessed  of  a  capac- 
ity which  existed  only  in  the  imagination  of  his 
flatterers,  and  of  a  learning  which  was  still  more 
mythical,  was  now  intent  on  glutting  his  vanity. 
"  High  on  a  throne  of  royal  state,"  he  was  employ- 
ed in  dictating  magisterially  to  an  assembly  of  di- 
vines concerning  points  of  faith'  and  discipline.t 
The  royal  pedant, 

"Like  Cato,  gave  his  little  senate  laws, 
And  sat  attentive  to  his  own  applause ; 
While  statesmen  and  divines  each  sentence  raise. 
And  wonder  with  a  foolish  face  of  praise." 

On  the  first  day  of  the  Conference,  the  Puritans 
were  not  admitted,  the  lords  of  the  Privy-council 
forming  the  sole  audience.:]:  The  whole  session  was 
devoted  to  satisfying  his  majesty  upon  several  moot- 
ed points  of  discipline,§  and  in  cramming  him,  as 
the  school  phrase  runs,  for  his  next  day's  bout  with 
non-conformity ;  for  since  James  had  been  bred  a 
Presbyterian,  it  was  no  Herculean  task  to  let  down 
the  plummet  and  sound  the  shallow  depths  of  his 
knowledge  of  the  English  ecclesiastical  polity.  At 
the  last,  the  king  expressed  himself  well  satisfied 
on  all  points,  and  so  ended  the  lesson.jl 

On  the  second  day  of  the  Conference — Sunday 
intervened  between  this  session  and  the  opening 

*  Wood,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  the  Univ.  of  Oxford,  book  1,  p. 
301.  t  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  123. 

I  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  172 ;  Burnet,  Strype.  §  Hume. 

II  Lathbury,  Prayer-book ;  Shent,  Ch.  Hist.,  etc. 


216         HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

one — the  Puritans  were  ushered  into  the  presence 
of  the  king.  We  quote  Carljle's  description  of  what 
ensued : 

"Awful,   devout  Puritanism,  decent,  dignified 
ceremonialism — both   always  of  high  moment  in 
this  world,  but  not  of  equally  high— appeared  here 
facing  each  other.     The  demands  of  the  Puritans 
seem  to  modern  times  very  limited  indeed.     They 
asked  that  there  should  be  a  new  and  correct  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible— granted.     That  there  should  be 
increased  zeal  in  teaching  it — omitted.     That  *  lay 
impropriations,'  that  is,  tithes  snatched  from  the 
old  church  by  laymen,  might  be  made  to  yield  a  sev- 
enth part  towards  maintaining  ministers  in  dark 
regions  which  had  none — refused.     That  the  clergy 
in  districts  might  be  permitted  to  meet  together  and 
strengthen  one  another's  hands,  as  in  old  times — 
indignantly  refused.     On  the  whole,  if  such  a  thing 
durst  be  hinted  at,  for  the  tone  is  almost  inaudibly 
low  and  humble,  that  pious,  straitened  preachers,  in 
terror  of  offending  God  by  idolatry,  and  useful  to 
human  souls,  might  not  be  cast  out  of  their  parishes 
for  genuflections,  white  surplices,  and  such  like,  but 
be  allowed  some  Christian  liberty  in  external  things. 
|These  claims  his  majesty  scouted  to  the  winds,  ap- 
^plauded  by  all  bishops  and  dignitaries,  lay  and  cler- 
ical."* 

James  loved  to  argue  in  the  imperative  mood. 

He  was  better  at  commands  than  at  syllogisms. 

"I  will  have,"  said  he,  "one  doctrine  and  one  dis- 

♦  Carlyle,  Letters  and  Speeches  of  Cromwell,  vol.  1,  pp.  51,  52. 


THE  PEDANT  KING. 


217 


cipline,  one  religion^  in  substance  and  ceremony; 
and  therefore  I  charge  all  never  to  speak  more  upon 
the  point  how  far  you  are  bound  to  obey,  when  the 
church  hath  ordained  it."*  He  then  avowed  his 
maxim  to  be,  "  No  bishop,  no  KiNG."t 

After  some  further  theological  skirmishing, 
James  turned  to  Eaynolds,  and  inquired  whether 
he  had  any  thing  further  to  object.  "  No,"  said 
the  overawed  and  browbeaten  divine.  Then  rising 
from  his  chair,  the  monarch  cried,  "  If  this  be  all 
that  you  have  to  say  for  your  party,  I  shall  make 
them  conform  themselves,  or  I  will  harry  them  out 
of  the  land,  or  else  do  worse.":^ 

So  fell  the  curtain  on  the  second  session. 

On  the  third  day,  the  friends  of  the  Estabhsh- 
ment  were  called  into  the  Privy-chamber  to  en- 
lighten the  king  upon  the  High  Commission  and 
the  oath  ex  officio,  both  of  which  were  held  by  the 
Puritans  to  be  unconstitutional  ;§  as  indeed  the 
great  lights  of  the  English  bar,  Holt  and  Somers, 
Hale  and  Erskine,  have  since  decided. 

But  since  these  relics  of  the  Inquisition  foMned 
chief  branches  of  the  royal  prerogative,  James,  who 
was  only  anxious  for  an  excuse  to  clutch  them,  per- 
mitted himself  to  be  convinced  by  the  obsequious 
clergy.l 


When  the  king  announced  his  determination  to 


*  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  187.    Barlow,  p.  85.  f  I^id. 

X  Ibid.,  Perry,  Neale,  Oarlyle,  etc. 
§  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  330,  and  on.    Hallam,  Con.  Hist 
II  Fuller,  vol.  3 ;  Perry,  Strype. 

Puritaua.  1 0 


218         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


retain  these  alien  and  atrocious  tyrannies,  "Whit- 
gift,  in  an  ecstacy  of  servility,  sobbed  out,  "  Un- 
doubtedly your  majesty  speaks  by  the  special  assist- 
ance of  God's  Spirit."  And  Bancroft  outran  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  this  sycophantic  scrub- 
race,  by  faUing  on  his  knees  and  adding,  "  I  protest, 
my  heart  melteth  with  joy  that  Almighty  God,  of  his 
singular  mercy,  hath  given  us  such  a  king  as,  since 
Christ's  time,  hath  not  been."* 

_____  * 

These  speeches  fitly  closed  the  poorest  and  the 
meanest  farce  that  has  ever  been  enacted.  Saxon 
servility  here  touched  the  muddiest  bottom.  The 
foremost  divines  in  England,  by  position,  stooped  to 
pay  this  impious  homage  to  a  monarch  who  was 
known  to  be  the  most  loquacious  pedant,  the  basest 
coward,  the  most  beastly  drunkard,  the  most  pro- 
fane swearer,  the  filthiest  conversationalist,  the  most 
licentious  fop,  the  most  cunning  dissembler,  and  the 
most  wholesale  Har  in  the  island  ;t  of  whom  Bishop 
Burnet  says,  that  "  while  hungry  writers  flattered 
him  out  of  all  measure  at  home,  he  was  despised  by 
all-afcroad  as  a  pedant  without  ti-ue  judgment,  cour- 
age, or  steadiness;":!:  and  who  was  described  by  the 
sagacious  Sully  as  "  the  wisest  fool  in  Europe."§ 

Of  the  king's  conduct  at  this  mock  Conference 
men  of  all  parties  speak  in  tones  of  like  contempt. 

*  Barlow,  Sum  of  Hampton  Court  Conference.  From  Barlow's 
account  all  others  are  taken.   See  Perrj^  p.  83 ;  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  192. 

t  Colle's  Detection ;  Holden,  Court  and  Life  of  James,  1650 ; 
Kennet,  Hist.  Eng ;  Koumer,  vol.  2  ;  Harris,  Hist,  and  Critical 
Acct  of  the  Life  and  Writings  of  James  I. ;  etc. 

t  Burnet's  Own  Times,  p.  8.         §  Sully,  Memoirs,  vol.  2. 


THE  PEDANT  KING. 


219 


At  one  moment  he  was  a  bully,  at  the  next  he  was 
a  buffoon,  and  then  he  changed  into  a  bigot.*  He 
was  extravagantly  elated  at  the  figure  he  had  made 
and  the  "victory"  he  had  achieved  over  the  Non- 
conformists. "I  peppered  them  soundly,"  wrote 
he  to  a  Scottish  churchman.t 

Who  can  wonder  that  a  later  generation  scoffed 
and  hissed  at  this  picture  of  a  narrow,  pedantic,  and 
blaspheming  king,  while  all  good  men  prayed  God 
to  save  the  church  from  the  feeble  knees  and  the 
itching  palms  of  this  bench  of  bishops  ? 

The  Conference  gave  Httle  satisfaction.  The  bish- 
ops  were  internally  conscious  that  they  made  no  fine 
figure  therein.     "  The  Non-conformists  complained 
that  the  king  sent  for  their  divines,  not  to  have  their 
scruples  satisfied,  but  his  pleasure  propounded ;  not 
that  he  might  know  what  they  could  say,  but  that 
they  might  know  what  he  would  do.    Besides,"  adds 
honest  Fuller,  "it  was  said  that  the  Conference  was 
partially  set  forth  by  Dr.  Barlow  alone,  who  was  their 
professed  adversary,  and  to  the  great  disadvantage 
of  their  divines.    And  when  the  Israelites  go  down 
to  the  Philistines  to  whet  all  their  iron  tools,  no 
wonder  if  these  set  a  sharp  edge  on  their  own  and 
a  blunt  one  on  their  enemies'  weapons.  "J 

Several  weeks  after  the  sine  die  adjournment  of 
the  Conference,  the  king  issued  a  proclamation,  in 
which  he  ordered  the  rigid  enforcement  of  the  con-  . 

•  Newell,  p.  229 ;  Perry,  Burnet,  Calderwood,  Strype,  Shent, 
etc.  t  Ibid.  ;  Strype ;  Whitgift,  App.,  239. 

t  Fuller,  voL  3,  pp.  192,  193. 


220 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


formity  statutes,  and  took  tlie  initiatory  steps  tow- 
ards "  harrying  the  Puritans  out  of  England."*  At 
the  same  time  he  assumed  the  right  to  reshuffle  and 
change  some  portions  of  the  Liturgy  upon  his  own 
ipse  dixit  "It  was  a  high  strain  of  the  preroga- 
tive," says  Neale,  "  to  alter  a  form  of  worship  estab- 
lished by  law  merely  by  a  royal  proclamation,  with- 
out consent  of  Parliament  or  convocation ;  for  by 
the  same  power  that  his  majesty  altered  one  article 
in  the  Liturgy,  he  might  set  aside  the  whole ;  every 
sentence  being  equally  established  by  act  of  Parlia- 
ment. But  this  wise  monarch  made  no  scruple  of 
dispensing  with  the  laws.  However,  the  force  of 
all  proclamations  determined  with  the  king's  life ; 
and  since  there  was  no  act  of  Parliament  to  estab- 
lish these  amendments,  it  was  argued  very  justly  in 
the  next  reign,  that  this  was  not  the  Liturgy  of  the 
church  of  England,  and  that  consequently  it  was 
not  binding  upon  the  clergy. "t 

Two  weeks  before  the  Conference  at  Hampton 
Court,  Cartwright  died.  J  He  was  one  of  the  initia- 
tors of  the  Puritan  controversy,§  and  Fuller  calls 
him  the  "  brain  of  non-conformity." 

Eight  weeks  later,  Whitgift  also  went  down  to  the 
grave.ll  We  will  not "  torment  him  before  his  time." 
Some  future  Swift,  some  Douglas  Jerrold,  shall 
paint  him  with  his  immortal  pen  to  the  scornful 
detestation  of  the  ages. 

o  Perry,  p.  115,  and  others.      f  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  331,  332. 

X  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  171.     NeweU,  p.  171. 

§  Chap.  12,  p.  167.  ||  Fuller,  Perry,  Strype. 


"FAITHFUL  FRIENDS.'' 


221 


CHAPTEE    XVI. 

THE  KING'S   "FAITHFUL  FRIENDS." 

Bishop  Bancroft,  the  avant  courier  of  Laud,  a 
prelate  "most  stiff  and  stern  to  press  conformity,"* 
succeeded  Whitgift  in  the  see  of  Canterbury.  Un- 
der his  iron  regime  the  differences  between  the  two 
wings  of  the  church  became  implacable.  A  wound 
not  dangerous  at  the  outset  was  poisoned  by  the 
remedies.!  Men's  consciences  were  racked  with 
fresh  zeal.  The  government  "weeded  men's  lives, 
and  made  use,  to  their  disgrace,  of  their  infirmi- 
ties." Each  hour  the  throat  of  non-conformity  was 
pressed  more  closely. 

When  Parliament  assembled  in  1604,  James,  in 
his  opening  harangue,  offered  "  to  meet  the  papists 
in  the  mid-way,  excepting  chiefly  to  the  pontiff's 
assumed  authority  over  princes;" J  and  he  added 
that  "  the  sect  called  Puritans  was  insufferable  in 
any  weU-governed  commonwealth."§  At  the  next 
session  of  Parliament,  the  royal  Judas,  in  pursuit 
of  his  phantom  of  a  union  between  Home  and  the 
EstabHshment,  grew  still  more  vindictive,  declaring 
the  Bomanists  to  be  ^\faitl}ful  subjects,''  and  this  on 
the  eve  of  the  Gunpowder-plot ;  but  expressing  de- 

o  Fuller,  toI.  3,  p.  244. 

■j-  Bacon's  Works,  vol.  2,  p.  544. 

X  Rapin,  Hist.  Eng.,  vol.  2,  pp.  165,  166.    Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  51. 

§  Ibid. 


\ 


222 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


testation  of  the  Puritans,  as  worthy  of  fire  for  their 
opinions.* 

At  the  same  time  a  convocation,  over  which 
Bancroft  presided,  adopted  the  Book  of  Canons 
sanctioned  by  the  king  ;t  and  in  these  it  was  main- 
tained that  all  objectors  to  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  the  apostolical  character  of  the  EstabHsh- 
ment,  or  the  ordination  of  bishops,  and  all  abettors 
of  other  churches  independent  of  the  legal  one, 
were  excommunicated,  and  abandoned  to  the  wrath 
of  God.t 

It  puzzled  the  thinkers  of  that  day  to  see  in 
what  respect  these  canons  differed  from  the  papal 
anathemas.    Posterity  has  not  solved  this  problem. 

Grasping  these  thunderbolts,  Bancroft  com- 
menced the  battle.  Fifteen  hundred  non-conform- 
ing clergymen  were  silenced,  imprisoned,  or  exiled.§ 
"  The  clergy  proceeded  with  a  consistent  disregard 
of  the  national  liberties.  The  importation  of  for- 
eign books  was  impeded;  a  severe  ecclesiastical 
censorship  was  exercised  over  the  press ;  frivolous 
acts  were  denounced  as  religious  offences.  A  later 
convocation,  in  a  series  of  canons,  denied  every 
doctrine  of  popular  rights,  asserting  the  superiority 
of  the  king  to  the  Parhament  and  the  laws,  and 
admitting,  in  their  zeal  for  absolute  monarchy,  no 
exception  to  the  duty  of  passive  obedience. 

o  Prince,  p.  3.    Bancroft,  Hist.  United  States,  vol.  1,  p.  298. 
t  Constitution  and  Canons  Eccl.,  Prince,  p.  107. 
X  Sparrow's  Collections,  pp.  271-334.    Constitutions  and  Can- 
ons, etc.  §  Newell,  p.  231.    Calderwood. 


**FAITHFUL  FRIENDS." 


223 


"  But  the  oppressed  party  was  neither  intimi- 
dated nor  weakened.  The  moderate  men,  who 
assented  to  external  ceremonies  as  to  things  indif- 
crent,  were  unwilling  to  enforce  them  by  merciless 
cruelty ;  and  they  resisted,  not  the  square  cap  and 
the  surphce,  but  the  compulsory  imposition  of  them. 
Thus  the  opponents  of  the  church  became  the  guar- 
dians of  popular  liberty ;  the  lines  of  the  contend- 
ing parties  were  distinctly  drawn  :  the  EstabHshed 
church  and  the  monarchy  on  one  side,  were  arrayed 
against  the  Puritan  clergy  and  the  people  on  the 
other."* 

In  this  quarrel  Parliament  began  to  side  openly 
with  the  Puritans;  not  because  its  members  agreed 
in  toto  with  the  dissenting  religious  tenets,  but  be- 
cause the  church  had  injudiciously  declared  itself 
against  the  highest  political  aspirations  of  Eng- 
land. So  the  Commons  resolutely  favored  the  sect 
which  was  their  natural  ally  in  the  struggle  against 
civil  despotism.t 

This  made  James'  anger  blaze  at  white  heat. 
The  recent  Parliaments  had  been  so  tenacious  and 
vigorous  in  asserting  the  long  buried,  but  now  re- 
suscitated rights  guaranteed  by  Magna  Charta,  that 
the  king  one  day  exclaimed, "  I  had  rather  live  like 
a  hermit  in  the  forest,  than  be  a  king  over  such  a 
people  as  the  pack  of  Puritans  are  that  overrule 
the  lower  house."J 


*  Newell,  p.  231.    Calderwood. 

t  Bancroft,  Hist,  of  United  States,  vol.  1,  p.  298. 

X  Hallarn,  Con.  Hist,  vol.  1,  pp.  408-420. 


224        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

Unfortunately  on  the  side  of  the  throne  were 
the  eclat  of  position,  the  omnipotence  of  wealth,  the 
prestige  of  success,  and  the  habit  of  submission, 
and  these  made  the  normal  forces  of  society,  justice, 
toleration,  regulated  hberty,  long  kick  the  beam. 

But  from  the  pack  of  odium  which  Puritanism, 
hke  Bunyan's  Pilgrim,  bore  upon  its  shoulders,  one 
parcel  now  slipped  out.  Custom,  the  mint-master 
of  current  words,  had  long  confounded  all  dissent- 
ers under  the  one  name,  "Puritan."  Now,  how- 
ever, the  "Familists,"  "whose  opinions  were  as 
senseless  as  their  lives  were  sensual,"  in  a  petition 
to  the  king  pointed  out  the  radical  differences  be- 
tween their  sect  and  the  Puritans,  who  were,  as 
they  knew,  odious  to  him,  hoping  thus  to  curry 
favor  with  James.  But  "  these  Familists  could  not 
be  so  glad  to  leave  the  Puritans,  as  the  Puritans 
were  glad  to  be  left  by  them."* 

But  the  gabble  of  the  "FamiHsts,"  the  murmurs , 
of  the  ParHament,  the  cries  of  the  Puritans  for  re- 
dress, and  the  pedantic  clatter  of  the  king  were  all 
brought  to  a  sudden,  though  but  momentary  pause, 
by  an  "  event  which  never  took  place." 

England,  tottering  on  the  edge  of  a  catastrophe, 
just  cheated  fate  by  a  timely  discovery.  Death 
struck  with  its  clammy  fingers  at  the  king  and  Par- 
liament, and  missed  its  aim  by  the  miscarriage  of  a 
letter. 

In  1605,  "  the  Eomanists,  despairing  either  by 
flattery  to  woo,  or  force  to  wrest,  any  free  and  pub- 

♦  FuUer,  vol.  3,  p.  210. 


''FAITHFUL  FRIENDS. 


I } 


225 


lie  exercise  of  their  religion  from  the  state,  entered 
into  a  conspiracy  to  blow  up  the  Parliament-house 
with  gunpowder."* 

The  very  conception  of  such  an  idea  is  of  itself 
the  strongest  argument  that  could  be  offered  against 
the  bigoted  proscription  of  that  illiberal  age.  The 
Bomanist,  like  the  Puritan,  was  hedged  about  with 
penalties  and  disabilities.  The  reformer  submitted 
till  patience  ceased  to  be  a  virtue ;  then  drawing 
an  honest  sword,  smote  off  his  shackles.  The  pa- 
pist, true  to  the  genius  of  his  faith,  plunged  into  a 
hidden  life  of  cabal  and  intrigue,  plot  and  con- 
spiracy. 

"  The  constant  under-agitation  of  the  body  pol- 
itic thus  produced  was  in  every  way  unfortunate  : 
unfortunate  for  the  Eomanists,  in  furnishing  a  show 
of  justice  for  the  cruelties  inflicted  on  them;  for  the 
government  and  the  church,  in  keeping  their  bitter 
resentments  aglow ;  for  the  Puritans,  in  giving  the 
rulers  an  excuse  for  more  arbitrary  proceedings 
against  them."t 

At  the  very  time  that  James  was  haranguing 
the  Parliament  on  their  behalf,  his  ^^ faithful  sub- 
jects" were  conspiring  to  blow  him  into  atoms. 

"  Treason  without  a  Jesuit  therein,  is  like  a  dry 
wall  without  either  lime  or  mortar."  So  in  this  case, 
Gerrard,  a  whelp  of  that  litter,  was  the  cement  to 
join  the  conspirators  together  with  the  sacrament 
of  secrecy,  t 


o  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  212. 
t  Fuller. 


t  Perry,  pp.  64,  65. 


10* 


I 


226 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


'^FAITHFUL  FEIENDS/' 


227 


"At  the  outset,"  says  Fuller,  "an  important 
scruple  arose  :  how  to  part  their  friends  from  their 
foes  in  the  Parliament,  they  having  many  in  the 
house  of  alliance,  yea,  of  the  same — in  conscience 
a  nearer  kindred — rehgion  with  themselves.  Such 
an  impartial  destruction  was  uncharitable,  yet  an 
exact  separation  seemed  impossible.  Here  a  Jes- 
uit, instead  of  untying,  cut  this  knot  asunder  with 
this  his  sharp  decision :  that  *  in  such  a  case  as 
this,  it  was  lawful  to  kill  friend  and  foe  together.'* 

"  Be  it  remembered  that,  though  these  plotters 
intended  at  last  with  honor  to  own  the  action,  when 
success  had  made  all  things  secure,  yet  they  pro- 
posed, when  the  blow  was  first  given,  and  while  the 
act  was  certain,  but  the  success  thereof  doubtful, 
to  father  the  fact  on  the  Puritans.  They  thought 
their  backs  were  broad  enough  to  bear  both  the 
sin  and  the  shame ;  and  that  this  saddle,  for  the 
present,  would  finely  fit  their  backs,  whbse  discon- 
tent, as  these  plotters  would  pretend,  unable  other- 
wise to  achieve  their  desired  alteration  in  church 
government,  had  by  this  damnable  treason  effected 
the  same.  By  transferring  the  fact  on  the  innocent 
Puritans,  they  hoped  not  only  to  decHne  the  odium 
of  so  hellish  a  design,  but  also,  by  the  strangeness 
of  the  act  and  the  unexpectedness  of  the  actors,  to 
amuse  all  men,  and  beget  a  universal  distrust,  that 
every  man  would  grow  jealous  of  himself.    And 

<*  The  conspirators  doubtless  acted  on  tlie  Jesnit  doctrine  that 
**the  end  justifies  the  means,"  and  that  "eyil  may  be  done  that 
good  may  come." 


while  such  amazement  tied,  in  a  manner,  all  hands, 
these  plotters  promised  themselves  the  working  out 
of  their  ends,  partly  by  their  home  strength,  and 
the  rest  by  calling  in  the  assistance  of  foreign 
princes. 

"  So  they  fell  aworking  in  a  vault  beneath  the 
Parliament-house.  Dark  the  place,  in  the  depth 
of  the  earth ;  dark  the  time,  in  the  dead  of  the 
night;  dark  the  design,  the  actors  therein  con- 
cealed by  oath  from  others,  and  thereby  combined 
among  themselves.  Oh,  how  easy  is  any  work 
where  high  merit  is  conceived  the  wages  thereof. 
In  piercing  through  the  wall  nine  feet  thick,  they 
imagined  that  thereby  they  hewed  forth  their  way 
to  heaven. 

"  But  they  digged  more  with  their  silver  in  an 
hour,  than  with  their  iron  in  many  days ;  namely, 
when  discovering  a  cellar  hard  by,  they  hired  the 
same,  and  these  pioneers  saved  much  of  their  pains 
thereby.  And  now  all  things  were  carried  so  se- 
cretly, that  there  was  no  possibiHty  of  detection, 
seeing  the  actors  themselves  had  solemnly  sworn 
that  they  would  not,  and  all  others  might  as  safely 
swear  they  could  not  make  discovery  thereof. 

"  But  so  it  fell  out,  that  the  sitting  of  Parlia- 
ment was  put  off  from  time  to  time ;  and  accord- 
ingly their  working  in  the  vault,  which  attended 
the  motion  of  Parliament,  had  several  distinct  in- 
termissions and  resumptions,  as  if  God  had  given 
warning  to  these  traitors,  by  the  slow  proceeding 
and  oft  adjourning  of  Parliament,  meantime  seri- 


228 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 


/ 


ously  to  consider  what  they  went  about,  and  sea- 
sonably to  desist  from  so  damnable  a  design,  as 
suspicious  that  at  last  that  would  be  ruined  which 
had  been  so  long  retarded.  But  no  taking  oflf  their 
wheels  will  stay  those  chariots  from  drowning 
which  God  hath  decreed  shall  be  swallowed  in  the 
Ked  sea.* 

"  *  Behold,  here  are  fire  and  wood ;  but  where  is 
the  lamb  for  the  burnt-offering?'  Alas,  a  whole 
flock  of  lambs  were  not  far  off,  all  appointed  to  the 
slaughter.  The  king,  prince  Henry,  peers,  bishops, 
judges,  knights,  burgesses,  all  destined  to  destruc- 
tion. But  thanks  be  to  God,  nothing  was  blown  up 
but  the  treason,  or  brought  to  execution  but  the 
traitors. 

"  With  a  pen  fetched  from  the  feather  of  a  fowl, 
a  letter  was  written  to  the  lord  Monteagle  in  these 
words : 

"  *  My  Lobd— Out  of  the  love  I  bear  to  some  of 
your  friends,  I  have  a  care  of  your  preservation ; 
therefore  I  would  advise  you,  as  you  tender  your 
life,  to  devise  some  excuse  to  shift  off  your  attend- 
ance at  this  Parliament,  for  God  and  man  have 
concurred  to  punish  the  wickedness  of  these  times. 
And  think  not  slightingly  of  this  advertisement,  but 
retire  yourself  into  your  country,  where  you  may 
await  the  event  with  safety ;  for  though  there  be  no 
appearance  of  any  stir,  yet  I  say  they  shall  receive 
a  terrible  blow,  this  Parliament,  and  still  not  see  who 
hurts  them.     This  counsel  is  not  to  be  contemned, 

«  Exodus  14  :  25 


'FAITHFUL  FEIENDS." 


229 


because  it  may  do  you  good,  and  can  do  you  no 
harm ;  for  the  danger  is  passed  as  soon  as  you  burn 
this  letter.  And  I  hope  God  will  give  you  grace  to 
make  good  use  of  it,  to  whose  holy  protection  I  now 
commend  you.' 

"A  strange  letter  from  a  strange  hand,  by  a 
strange  messenger,  without  date  to  it,  name  at  it, 
and,  I  had  almost  said,  sense  in  it ;  a  letter  which, 
even  when  it  was  opened,  was  still  sealed,  such  the 
affected  obscurity  therein. 

"The  lord  Monteagle,  as  loyalty  advised  him, 
communicated  the  letter  to  the  earl  of  Salisbury, 
he  to  the  king.  His  majesty,  on  a  second  perusal, 
expounded  that  the  mystical  *blow'  meant  therein 
must  be  by  gunpowder;  and  he  gave  orders  for 
searching  the  rooms  under  the  Parliament-house, 
on  pretence  of  looking  for  lost  hangings  which  were 
conveyed  away. 

"  The  first  search,  made  about  evening,  discov- 
ered nothing  but  the  cellar  full  of  wood,  and  a  man — 
Fawkes  disguised — attending  thereon.  However, 
the  sight  of  Fawkes  so  quickened  the  jealousy  of 
Lord  Monteagle,  that  this  first  slight  search  led  to 
a  second  scouting,  more  closely  and  secretly  per- 
formed. 

"  This  was  made  at  midnight  into  the  vault  un- 
der the  Parliament-house.  There  *  the  mystery  of 
iniquity'  was  quickly  discovered;  a  jjile  of  fuel, 
faced  over  with  billets,  lined  under  with  thirty-six 
barrels  of  powder,  besides  iron  bars,  to  make  the 
force  of  the  explosion  more  effectual.    Guy  Fawkes 


230 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


was  apprehended  in  the  outer  room,  with  a  dark- 
lantern  in  his  hand — the  lively  emblem  of  their 
design,  whose  dark  side  was  turned  to  man,  while 
the  light  part  was  exposed  to  God — and  three 
matches,  ready  to  give  fire  to  the  train."* 

Fawkes  confessed  all;  the  conspirators  were 
"  solemnly  arraigned,  convicted,  and  condemned  at 
London.  So  foul  the  fact,  so  fair  the  proof,  they 
could  say  nothing  for  themselves.'*  One  of  these 
caitiffs  was  Garnet,  provincial  of  the  English  Jes- 
uits, whom  the  pope  afterwards  canonized.t 

Thus  "  murder  will  out,"  and  "  heaven  defeated 
hell  of  its  desired  success." 

o  Fuller,  vol.  3,  pp.  212-219. 
t  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  345.    Fuller. 


NEW  AND  OLD  EPOCH. 


231 


CHAPTEE  XYII. 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A  NEW  AND  THE  DEATH  OF 

AN  OLD  EPOCH. 

England  did  not  at  once  realize  the  ghastly 
horror  which  had  so  nearly  robbed  her  of  her  king 
and  legislature.  But  when  the  people  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  programme  of  the  gunpowder- 
plotters,  they  uttered  a  vengeful  cry.  Parliament, 
echoing  the  opinion  of  the  side-walk,  was  provoked 
to  curb  Eomanism  by  the  enactment  of  a  rigid 
penal  code.*  • 

But  this  severitv  was  soon  relaxed.  A  cour- 
tier's  hint  was  the  key  which  unlocked  a  multitude 
of  prison  doors.  One  day  Sir  Dudley  Carlton  re- 
turned from  Spain.  Noticing  that  the  king  was 
accustomed  to  hunt  unguarded,  the  ambassador 
button-holed  him,  and  said,  "  My  liege,  if  you  use 
not  more  precaution,  the  Jesuits  will  assassinate 
you."t  This  air-drawn  dagger  terrified  the  royal 
coward.  He  disliked  to  give  up  hunting,  so  he 
ceased  to  persecute  the  papists.  "  I  have  the  min- 
utes of  the  council-book  of  the  year  1606,"  says 
Burnet,  "  and  they  are  full  of  orders  for  the  dis- 
charge and  transportation  of  incarcerated  priests; 
sometimes  ten  a  day  were  set  free."t 


•  Lingard,  vol.  6,  p.  68 ;  Hume,  Fox. 
f  Burnet's  Own  Times,  p.  5. 


;  Ibid. 


232 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


But  these  empty  cells  were  not  long  aired.  The 
Puritans  replaced  the  Komanists.  If  the  papists 
were  trodden  on,  viper-like,  they  would  hiss  and 
sting.  James  thought  it  safer  to  spit  upon  the 
Keformation.  This  philosophy  gave  added  venom 
to  the  crusade  against  Puritanism.  Ere  long  a 
warm  controversy  sprang  up  among  the  Puritans 
as  to  the  lawfulness  and  the  policy  of  separation.^ 
While  this  battle  vexed  the  ranks  of  the  non-con- 
formists, the  conforming  clergy  stood  by  as  spec- 
tators of  the  combat.  The  larger  portion  of  the 
Puritans  decided  still  to  adhere  to  the  Establish- 
ment, influenced  by  the  reflection  that  it  was  a  true 
church,  though  they  esteemed  it  corrupt  in  cere- 
mony, and  *by  the  fact  that  the  Sejiaratists  were 
even  worse  harried  than  themselves.! 

Indeed  the  most  rigid  of  the  Separatists  were 
already  preparing  to  quit  the  island.it  It  was  in 
1607  that  those  pilgrims,  whom  God  destined  to  be 
the  fathers  of  religious  America,  took  their  sad 
farewell  of  dear,  cruel  England. 

In  the  north  of  the  island,  scattered  through  the 
border  towns  of  Yorkshire,  and  through  the  county 
hamlets  of  Nottingham  and  Lincoln,  there  lived  in 
these  years  communities  of  stout  yeomen  "  whose 
hearts  the  Lord  had  touched  with  heavenly  zeal  for 
his  truth."  They  had  "joined  themselves  by  a  cov- 
enant into  a  church  estate  in  the  fellowship  of  the 

*  Newell,  Neale,  Hume. 

t  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  344 ;  Newell,  Fuller. 

t  Bancroft,  Hist,  of  United  States,  vol.  1,  p.  300. 


NEW  AND  OLD  EPOCH. 


233 


gospel."  Wedded  to  the  Separatist  tenets,  these 
Puritans  rejected  "the  offices  -and  callings,  the 
courts  and  canons"  of  the  Estabhshment.  Ee- 
nouncing  all  ecclesiastical  obedience  to  human 
authority,  they  planted  themselves  upon  the  Bible, 
under  which  they  asserted  for  themselves  an  UDlim- 
ited,  never-ending  right  to  make  advances  in  the 
truth,  and  "  to  walk  in  all  the  ways  which  God  had 
made  known  or  should  make  known  to  them."* 

The  arbitrary  government  of  James  I.  could  ill 
brook  the  proclamation  of  such  a  gospel.  So  now, 
scourged,  starved,  and  imprisoned  at  home,  these 
congregations  prepared  to  emigrate.t 

The  Netherlands  were  then  the  freest,  most  tol- 
erant countries  in  Christendom.  There  also  the 
Keformation  had  been  shaped  by  the  plastic  hand 
of  Calvin.  Thus  the  exiles  were  attracted  to  the 
Low  Countries.  In  Holland  then  they  eventually 
settled,  though  they  did  not  reach  that  haven  with- 
out vicissitudes  which  would  have  chilled  the  ardor 
and  affrighted  the  hearts  of  less  dauntless  heroes. 

The  continental  career  of  the  Pilgrims  was  no 
smooth  gala  festival.  Strangers  in  a  new  land,  with 
whose  language  they  were  mostly  unacquainted, 
they  made  hard  shift  to  hve;  and  though  they  won 
the  sympathy  and  secured  the  veneration  of  their 
honest  entertainers,  Holland  was  not  "home."  The 
busy  crowds,  shod  in  their  wooden  shoes,  the  gut- 
tiu-al  Belgic  tongue,  the  quaintly  gabled  houses,  the 

♦  Bancroft,  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  1,  p.  300. 
t  Ibid. 


234         HISTOBT  OF  THE  PUBITANS. 

flat  banks  of  the  canals  which  cobwebbed  Holland, 
the  dykes  which  shut  out  the  sullen  ocean,  and 
which  were  defended  by  windmills  whose  long  arms 
were  dipped  into  the  encroaching  water  to  fling  it 
back  from  the  coasts  usurped  by  the  skill  of  man 
from  the  complaining  sea — these  bore  no  resem- 
blance to  the  hills  and  vales  of  their  lost  island, 
and  they  could  not  compensate  the  exiles  for  the 
old,  familiar  landscape, 

**For  the  shieling  wood  and  stream-girt, 
"Where  romance  youth's  summer  sped ; 
For  the  belfi-y  by  the  gray  kirk, 
In  whose  shadow  slept  their  dead." 

The  Pilgrims  tarried  for  a  time  in  Amsterdam ; 
thence  they  went  to  Leyden,  that  heroic  town  whose 
burghers  had  pawned  it  to  the  sea,  to  save  it  from 
the  grip  of  the  Spaniard  and  the  pope.*  There  too 
they  conquered  all  hearts  by  their  piety,  their  pa- 
tience, and  their  fortitude. 

But  despite  the  friendliness  of  their  reception, 
"weighty  reasons,  often  and  seriously  discussed, 
inclined  the  Pilgrims  to  look  beyond  Holland  for  a 
permanent  abode.  They  had  been  bred  to  agricul- 
tural pursuits,  and  in  the  Netherlands  they  were 
forced  to  learn  the  mechanical  trades.  Brewster 
became  a  printer;  Bradford  learned  the  art  of  dye- 
ing silk.  The  language  of  the  Dutch  never  became 
pleasantly  familiar.  They  lived  but  as  men  in  ex- 
ile.  *  Their  continual  labors,  with  other  crosses  and 

•  Motley,  Kise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  vol.  L 


_  NEW  AND  OLD  EPOCH. 


235 


sorrows,  left  them  in  danger  to  scatter  or  sink.'  "* 
They  yearned  for  a  true  and  lasting  home. 

One  day  they  decided  that,  since  they  might  not 
return  to  England,  where  persecution  frowned  on 
them  from  the  sands  and  cliffs,  they  would  quit 
their  Netherland  firesides  and  settle  in  that  shad- 
owy and  almost  unknown  New  World  which  Colum- 
bus had  added  to  the  Old. 

This  decision  once  made,  the  Pilgrims  trans- 
mitted to  England  a  request  to  be  permitted  to 
colonize  America.  "  We  are  well  weaned,"  wrote 
Robinson  and  Brewster,  two  of  their  most  trusted 
teachers,  "from  the  delicate  milk  of  our  mother 
country,  and  inured  to  the  difficulties  of  a  strange 
land.  Our  people  are  industrious  and  frugal.  We 
are  knit  together  as  a  body  in  a  most  sacred  cov- 
enant of  the  Lord,  of  the  violation  whereof  we  make 
great  conscience,  and  by  virtue  of  which  we  hold 
ourselves  straitly  tied  to  all  care  of  each  other's 
good,  and  of  the  whole.  It  is  not  with  us  as  with 
men  whom  small  things  can  discourage."t 

But  nothing  could  be  wrung  from  their  surly 
king  but  an  informal  promise  of  neglect. J  On  this 
the  exiles  relied,  exclaiming,  "If  there  should  after- 
wards be  a  purpose  to  wrong  us,  though  we  had  a 
charter  whose  seal  was  as  broad  as  the  house-floor, 
there  would  be  means  enough  found  to  reverse  or 
recall  it."§ 

At  length  all  was  ready.  After  innumerable 
discouragements,  including  one  false  start,  when 

o  Bancroft,  vol.  1,  p.  303.         f  Ibid.         t  Ibid.         §  Ibid. 


I 


236 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


NEW  AND  OLD  EPOCH. 


237 


they  had  been  winnowed  by  the  desertion  of  a  por- 
tion of  their  friends  whose  hearts  had  failed  them 
at  the  critical  moment,  the  little  company  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  souls,  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren,* repaired  to  Delft-Haven.  Here,  since  >with 
the  Pilgiims  every  undertaking  began  with  God^ 
they  knelt  by  the  side  of  the  moaning  sea,  while 
Kobinson  invoked  the  heavenly  benediction  on  his 
departing  flock;  after  which  that  great  teacher 
gave  them  a  farewell  which  breathed  a  freedom  of 
opinion  and  an  indej)endence  of  authority  such  as 
then  was  hardly  known  in  the  world.f 

Then  came  the  embarkation;  the  sails* were 
spread,  and  "the  Mayflower  of  a  forlorn  hope, 
freighted  with  the  prospects  of  a  future  state, 
plunged  across  the  unknown  sea." 

We  may  not  pause  to  rehearse  the  touching 
story  of  the  long,  cold,  and  dangerous  autumnal 
passage ;  of  the  landing  on  the  inhospitable  rocks 
at  a  dismal  season ;  of  their  desertion  by  the  ship 
which  had  brought  them  from  Holland,  and  which 
seemed  their  only  hold  upon  the  world  of  fellow- 
men,  a  prey  to  the  elements  and  to  want,  and  fear- 
fully ignorant  of  the  power  and  temper  of  the  sav- 
age tribes  that  filled  the  unexplored  continent  upon 
whose  verge  they  stood.  J 

"But  all  things  wrought  together  for  good. 
These  trials  of  wandering  and  exile,  of  the  ocean, 
the  winter,  the  wilderness,  and  the  savage  foe,  were 

*  Young's  NiuTative.    Keale,  Eecords  of  the  Pilgrims,  etc. 
t  Bancroft.  f  Everett. 


the  final  assurance  of  success.  They  kept  away 
from  the  enterprise  all  patrician  softness,  all  hered- 
itary claim  to  preeminence.  No  effeminate  nobility 
crowded  into  the  austere  ranks  of  the  Pilgrims.  No 
Carr,  no  Yilliers  desired  to  conduct  this  ill-provided 
band  of  outcast  Puritans.  No  well-endowed  clergy 
were  desirous  to  quit  their  cathedrals  to  set  up  a 
splendid  hierarchy  in  the  frozen  wilderness.  No 
craving  governors  were  anxious  to  be  sent  over  to 
a  cheerless  El  Dorado  of  ice  and  snow."* 

But  the  gloomy  presage  did  not  daunt  the  con- 
scientious exiles ;.  through  all  they  trusted  God. 
When  half  their  company  lay  dead  on  the  chilly 
coast,  and  the  rest  seemed  shivering  towards  the 
grave,  they  found  strength  to  murmur,  "Father, 
not  our  will,  but  thine  be  done." 

And  this  unfaltering  faith  God  owned,  and  ho 
blessed  their  enterprise  beyond  their  most  sanguine 
hope  or  thought.     "  Successful  indeed  in  its  outset, 
it  has  been  more  and  more  successful  at  every  sub- 
sequent point  in  the  line  of  time.    Accomplishing 
all  they  projected,  what  they  projected  is  the  least 
part  that  has  come  to  pass.    Forming  a  design  in 
itself  grand,  bold,  and  even  appalling  in  its  requi- 
site risks  and  sacrifices,  the  fulfilment  of  that  de- 
sign is  the  least  thing  which,  in  the  steady  progress 
of  events,  has  flowed  from  their  counsels  and  their 
efforts.    Did  they  propose  for  themselves  a  refuge 
beyond  the  sea  from  the  religious   and  political 
tyranny  of  Europe  ?   They  achieved  not  that  alone, 

o  Everett,  Orations  and  Speeclies,  vol.  1,  p.  47. 


9 


238         HISTOEY  OF  THfi  PURITANS. 

but  thej  have  opened  a  wide  asjlum  to  all  the  vic- 
tims of  oppression  throughout  the  world.   Did  they 
look  for  a  retired  spot,  inoffensive  from  its  obscuri- 
ty, safe  in  its  remoteness  from  the  haunts  of  des- 
pots, where  the  little  church  of  Leyden  might  enjoy 
freedom  of  conscience?   Behold  the  mighty  regions 
over   which   in    peaceful    conquest— victoria  sine 
dade — they  have  borne  the  banners  of  the  cross. 
Did  they  seek,  under  the  common  franchise  of  a 
trading-charter,  to  prosecute  a  frugal  commerce  in 
reimbursement   of  the  expenses   of  their  humble 
establishment  ?    The  fleets  and  navies  of  their  de- 
scendants are  on  the  farthest  ocean,  and  the  wealth 
of  the  Indies  is  now  wafted  on  every  tide  to  the 
coasts  where,  with  hook  and  line,  they  painfully 
gathered  up  their  frugal  earnings.     Did  they  in 
their  brightest,  most  sanguine  moments  contem- 
plate a  thrifty,  loyal,  and  prosperous  colony,  por- 
tioned off,  like  a  younger  son  of  the  imperial  fam- 
ily, to  a  humble  and  dutiful  distance  ?    Behold  the 
spectacle  of  a  powerful  and  independent  republic, 
founded  on  the  shores  where  some  of  those  are  but 
lately  dead  who  saw  the  first-born  of  the  Pilgrims."* 
But  while  the  Pilgrims  were  preparing  to  cross 
the  sea,  king  James  was  fall  of  his  prerogative. 
He  "  apprehended  that  he  could  convince  his  sub- 
jects of  its  unlimited  extent.    For  this  purpose  he 
turhed  preacher  in  the  Star-chamber,  and  took  this 
text :  "  Give  the  king  thy  judgments,  O  God,  and 
thy  righteousness  to  the  king's  son."t 

®  Everett,  ut  antea.  |  psaim  72  : 1. 


NEW  AND  OLD  EPOCH. 


239 


1 


"After  dividing  and  subdividing,  and  giving  the 
literal  and  the  mystical  meaning  of  his  text,  he  ap- 
plied it  to  the  judges  and  courts  of  judicature,  tell- 
ing them  that  *the  king  sitting  in  the  throne  of 
God,  all  judgments  centre  in  him;  and  therefore, 
for  inferior  courts  to  determine  difficult  questions' 
without  consulting  him,  was  to  limit  his  power  and 
encroach  on  his  prerogative,  which  it  was  not  law- 
ful for  the  tongue  of  lawyer  nor  any  subject  to  dis- 
pute.' As  it  is  atheism  and  blasphemy  to  dispute 
what  God  can  do,  *  so,'  said  James,  *  it  is  to  take 
away  that  mystical  reverence  which  belongs  to  him 
who  sits  in  the  throne  of  God.'  Then  addressing 
himself  to  his  auditory,  he  advised  them  *not  to 
meddle  with  the  king's  prerogative  or  honor.  Plead 
not,'  he  added,  *  upon  Puritanical  principles,  which 
make  all  things  popular,  but  keep  within  the  an- 
cient limits.'  "* 

When  Alexander  sent  word  to  the  Lacedaemo- 
nians that  he  had  made  himself  a  god,  they  replied 
with  easy  nonchalance,  "Be  a  god."  But  when 
king  James  set  up  for  one,  the  Puritans,  it  seems, 
were  not  equally  complaisant. 

In  1618,  twenty-four  months  after  his  plea  for 
the  prerogative,  James,  in  order  to  repress  the 
growth  of  Puritanism,  by  enlisting  the  natural  de- 
pravity of  the  human  heart  against  it,  issued  a  dec- 
laration for  the  encouragement  of  Sunday  sports,  a 
declaration  right  in  the  teeth  of  a  proclamation  of 
an  earlier  date,  and  also  counter  to  the  Articles  ol 

o  Neale,  toI.  1,  p.  372. 


240        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

the  churcli  ratified  under  the  great  seal,  in  which 
the  morality  of  the  day  was  affirmed.  By  this  man- 
ifesto magistrates  were  directed  not  to  disturb  "any 
lawful  recreations,  such  as  dancing,  either  of  men 
or  women,  archery,  leaping,  vaulting,  Whitsun-ales, 
"or  May-games."* 

"  When  this  declaration  was  hawked  abroad,  it 
is  not  so  hard  to  believe,  as  sad  to  recount,  what 
grief  and  distraction  was  thereby  occasioned  in 
many  honest  men's  hearts;  the  recreations  speci- 
fied being  conceived  impeditive  to  the  observation 
of  the  Lord's  day,  yea,  unsuitable  and  unbeseeming 
the  essential  duties  thereof."t 

The  king  had  never  been  a  stickler  for  purity  of 
doctrine ;  he  accepted  what  made  for,  and  forbade 
what  made  against  the  maxims  of  absolutism.  He 
was  enamoured  only  of  outward  Uniformity  and 
clerical  subserviency.  His  latest  whim  was  to 
patronize  the  Arminian  tenets.  The  most  zealous 
advocates  of  that  creed  w^ere  now  advanced  to  some 
of  the  best  bishoprics  in  England.  "These  divines, 
apprehending  that  their  principles  were  hardly  con- 
sistent with  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  fell  in  with  the 
prerogative,  and  covered  themselves  under  the  wine 
of  his  majesty's  pretensions  to  unlimited  power. 
This  gave  rise  to  a  new  distinction  at  court  between 
church  and  state  Puritans.  All  w^ere  Puritans  with 
king  James  who  clutched  the  Magna  Charta  in  op- 
position to  his  arbitrary  government;  these  were 
Puritans  in  the  state,  as  those  were  Puritans  who 

•  FuUer,  vol.  3,  p.  270.     Neale.  vol.  1,  p.  381.  f  FuUer. 


NEW  AND  OLD  EPOCH 


241 


had  scruples  about  the  ceremonies  in  the  church. 
Ecclesiastical  Puritanism  "was  now  reinforced  by 
the  Constitutionalists,  and  these  united  formed  the 
great  majority  of  the  nation.  To  balance  this  po- 
tent party,  James  protected  and  countenanced  the 
Arminians  and  the  papists,  who,  in  their  turn,  cried 
lustily  for  the  prerogative,  and  hardened  into  a 
state  faction  against  the  fundamental  laws  and  the 
sealed  charters  of  the  past."* 

It  was  around  these  nucleus  bodies  that  the  sat- 
ellites of  either  revolved. 

And  now  the  home  record  became  as  disgraceful 
as  the  foreign  aspect  was  disastrous.  The  "  Thirty 
Years'  War"  was  desolating  the  Continent.  Prot- 
estantism seemed  at  its  last  gasp.  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus  had  not  yet  swooped  with  his  Norsemen  to 
the  rescue ;  Richelieu  had  not  yet  commenced  to 
spin  his  web  of  tortuous  policy.  The  TJltramon- 
tanists  were  everywhere  triumphant.  Yet  England 
looked  on  calmly  and  saw  the  Reformation  choked. 
Even  when  the  king's  son-in-law  lost  the  palatinate, 
while  his  daughter  and' her  elector-husband  were 
driven  into  Holland  for  a  sanctuary,  the  British  gov- 
ernment merely  muttered  a  verbal  protest.  The 
lazy  indolence  of  the  king,  both  as  a  father  and  a 
Protestant,  was  only  broken  by  a  demand  for  a  sub- 
sidy, ostensibly  to  aid  the  good  cause,  but  which  the 
royal  swindler  dissipated  in  riot  and  licentiousness.t 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  minutely  into  the 
history  of  the  latter  years  of  this  imbecile  pedant's 

•  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  384.  t  Hallam,  Schiller. 

11 


PuritHiiB. 


!; 


242         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 

disgraceful  reign.  James  was  consistent  only  in 
bis  hatred  of  the  Puritans.  Towards  them  the  Nero, 
the  Caligula  of  his  character  never  changed.  In 
all  other  respects  he  was  a  kaleidoscope,  of  which 
the  shrewdest  courtier  could  never  "guess"  the 
next  combination. 

He  reduced  England  from  a  first-class  to  a  sec- 
ond-rate power ;  his  government  was  a  prolonged 
plot ;  and  so  well  known  was  his  cowardice,  that 
foreign  nations  always  counted  on  it  when  settling 
their  English  policy.  Thus  Dionysio  Lazari,  who 
spent  some  years  in  Britain  under  James'  rule, 
made  a  report  to  the  Congregation  for  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Faith  at  Kome,  in  which,  after  speci- 
fying the  means  whereby  Komanism  might  be  ad- 
vanced in  England,  he  said  tliat  "  he  relied  much 
on  the  plan  of  working  upon  the  fears  and  suspi- 
cions of  the  king,  who  was  timid,  and  who  seemed 
indifferent  to  any  religion."* 

Macauley  states  that  James,  in  order  to  effect 
his  favorite  project  of  marrying  his  son  into  one  of 
the  great  continental  houses,  was  ready  to  make 
immense  concessions  to  Kome,  and  even  to  admit 
a  modified  primacy  in  the  pope.t 

He  was  always  scheming  to  root  out  Scottish 
Presbyterianism,  and  to  extend  the  Enghsh  Estab- 
lishment into  the  twin  kingdom.^  But  this  plot 
was  foiled  by  the  resolution  of  the  Covenanters, 

*  Eanke,  History  of  the  Popes,  vol.  2,  p.  456. 

t  Macauley,  Miscellaneous  Essays. 

X  Wilson,  Hist,  of  King  James.     Collier. 


NEW  AND  OLD  EPOCH, 


243 


>'\ 


and  the  royal  "god"  found  that  his  prerogative 
could  not  conjure  this  creation  into  existence. 

Almost  the  only  thing  which  posterity  can  find 
to  laud  in  James'  reign  is  the  new  translation  of  the 
Bible,  which  was  then  undertaken  and  completed ; 
and  even  this  was  one  of  the  scanty  concessions 
which  the  evangelical  party  in  the  church  wrung 
from  the  king  at  the  Hampton  Court  conference. 
"The  number  of  select  and  competent  divines  en- 
gaged in  this  great  work,'*  says  Fuller,  "  was  not  too 
many,  lest  one  such  trouble  another ;  and  yet  many, 
lest  any  thing  might  haply  escape  them.  Neither 
courting  praise  for  expedition,  nor  fearing  reproach 
for  slackness — seeing  that  in  a  business  of  moment 
none  deserve  blame  for  convenient  slowness — they 
had  expended  almost  three  years  in  the  work,  not 
only  examining  the  channels  by  the  fountain,  the 
translation  with  the  original,  which  was  necessary, 
but  also  comparing  channels  with  channels,  which 
was  abi^pdantly  useful,  in  the  Spanish,  Itahan, 
French,  and  Dutch  languages.  The  Bible  was  pub- 
lished in  1611 ;  and  their  learning,  skilfulness,  piety, 
discretion  therein,  have  bound  the  church  unto  them 
in  a  debt  of  special  remembrance  and  gratitude."* 

It  is  also  worthy  of  note,  though  James  had  Httle 
enough  to  do  with  it,  that  the  first  congregation  of 
that  sect,  which  afterwards  won  such  wide  fame  and 
set  on  foot  such  mighty  revolutions  on  either  con- 
tinent, the  Independents,  was  gathered  in  England 
by  a  divine  named  Jacob,  in  James'  age.    Jacob,  a 

*  Fuller,  vol.  3,  pp.  245-256. 


244 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


spiritual  son  of  that  Kobinson  who  led  the  Pilgrims 
at  Leyden,  formed  his  infant  Congregational  church 
in  1615.*  Their  chief  principles  were  these  :  "  the 
sufficiency  of  Scripture,  leaving  nothing  to  church 
practice  or  human  tradition,  these  being  but  the 
iron  feet  and  clay  toes  of  that  statue  whose  head 
and  whole  body  ought  to  be  pure  scripture-gold ;  a 
refusal  to  make  any  present  judgment  binding  on 
them  in  the  future  ;  the  complete  independence  of 
the  individual  congregations."t  ■ 

But  to  recur  to  James.  He  was  a  punctual 
attender  on  the  forms  of  worship,  and  he  affected 
to  be  something  of  a  metaphysician.  But  he  heard 
the  exhortations  of  his  clergy,  and  listened  to  the 
refinements  of  his  court  preacher,  Andrews,  the 
famous  bishop  of  Winchester,  precisely  as,  a  little 
later,  Louis  XIV.  sat,  with  his  mistress  by  his  side, 
and  enjoyed  the  eloquent  flights  of  Massillon  and 
Bossu6t.| 

But  the  tragi-comedy  was  well-nigh  ended.  In 
1625  death  cut  short  the  pageant.  James  descended 
into  the  grave,  and  the  court  which  Hallam  esti- 
mates as  the  most  immoral  in  English  history,§  was 
robbed  of  its  exemplar. 

Away  across  the  misty  waters,  on  the  rock  at 
Plymouth,  an  epoch  was  commencing ;  in  England 
an  epoch  lay  dead  in  the  coffin  of  king  James. 


*  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  371,  372. 
X  Perry,  p.  55. 


t  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  4G2. 
§  Hallam,  Con.  Uist 


THE  ENGLISH  COMMONS. 


245 


CHAPTEE  XVIII. 


THE  ENGLISH  COMMONS. 

On  the  accession  of  Charles  I.,  the  times  were 
pregnant  with  mighty  changes.  A  revolution  was 
maturing  which  God  destined  to  be  the  eldest  born 
of  the  Reformation.  The  people,  weary  and  fretful, 
felt  J  rather  than  smo  the  approaching  dissolution  of 
the  feudal  idea.  That  haughty  prerogative  upon 
which  the  Tudors  and  the  Stuarts  leaned  so  heav- 
ily, was  about  to  snap.  To  the  maxims,  the  forms, 
the  language  of  arbitrary  monarchy,  the  English 
commons  were  soon  to  gi\e  the  lie. 

The  tenets  of  unlimited  power  were  an  exotic  in 
England ;  they  were  a  recent  importation  from  the 
Continent.  In  France,  in  Spain,  in  Italy,  in  Ger- 
many itself,  the  cradle  of  individualism,  the  liber- 
ties of  subjects  were  held  to  exist  only  as  subordi- 
nate rights,  or  rather,  as  concessions  for  w^hich  they 
were  indebted  to  a  despot's  generosity.^  "I  am 
the  state !"  exclaimed  arrogant  imperialism. 

In  England  these  haughty  pretensions  were 
comparatively  new.  The  middle  class  of  islanders 
were  not  wont  "  to  crook  the  pregnant  hinges  of 
the  knee;"  they  were  accustomed  to  make  no  East- 
ern salaams.  3Iagna  Charta  had  long  been  the  Gib- 
raltar of  popular  rights.     But  a  new  regime  began 

o  Guizot,  Hist.  Eng.  Rev.,  vol.  1,  p.  7. 


246 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


witli  the  royalty  of  the  Tudors.  Henry  VII.  curbed 
the  aristocracy  of  Britain,  as  Louis  XL  broke  the 
spirit  of  the  feudaHsts  in  France.  The  iron  barons 
of  Eunnymede  melted  into  the  courtier  fops  of  a 
licentious  and  degenerate  age. 

The  commons  were  long  held  too  low  to  strug- 
gle against  these  innovations,  but  they  cherished 
the  memory  of  the  old,  free  days  all  the  more  ten- 
derly because  the  past  was  linked  with  epithets  of 
contempt  by  the  usurping  court. 

Gradually  the  people  crept  up  to  a  higher  level ; 
the  entrance  of  the  lesser  nobility  and  of  the  smaller 
landed  proprietors  into  the  House  of  Commons  pro- 
vided them  with  resolute  and  determined  leaders. 
Thus  it  chanced  that,  "while  the  higher  aristocracy 
crowded  around  the  court,  to  make  up  for  their  spo- 
liation of  authority  in  borrowed  dignities,  as  cor- 
rupting as  they  were  precarious — and  which,  without 
giving  them  back  their  former  fortunes,  separated 
them  more  and  more  from  the  people — the  gentry, 
the  freeholders,  the  citizens,  occupied  mainly  in 
improving  their  land,  in  extending  their  trade,  in 
enlarging  their  minds  through  the  keen  competi- 
tions of  active  life,  increased  in  riches  and  credit, 
and  became  daily  more  closely  united,  drawing  the 
masses  under  their  influence ;  in  this  way  the  yeo- 
men, without  show,  without  political  design,  almost 
unknown  to  themselves,  took  possession  of  the 
social  forces  of  the  island."^ 

Then  came  the  Keformation.   Men's  minds  were 

*  Guizot,  ut  antca. 


THE  ENGLISH  COMMONS. 


247 


emancipated.  The  people  began  to  think  and  to 
question.  The  logical  sequence  of  ecclesiastical 
freedom  is  civil  liberty.  Men  who  examined  boldly 
the  mysteries  of  divine  power,  might  not  long  be 
shackled  by  earthly  authority.  Eesistance  to  ty- 
rants became  obedience  to  God. 

This  inevitable  tendency  was  invigorated  by  the 
triumphant  civilization  of  the  era.  Commerce  put 
its  belt  around  the  globe.  The  needle  trembled  to 
the  pole,  and  timid  mariners  no  longer  hugged  the 
mainland.  "  The  career  of  maritime  discovery  had 
been  pursued  with  daring  intrepidity  and  with  brill- 
iant success.  The  voyages  of  Gosnold  and  Smith 
and  Hudson,  the  enterprise  of  Ealeigh  and  Dela- 
ware and  Gorges,  the  compilations  of  Eden  and 
Willes  and  Hakluyt  had  filled  the  commercial  world 
with  wonder."^  London  became  immensely  wealthy; 
and  it  was  the  Shylock  to  whom  the  king,  the  court, 
and  most  of  the  great  nobles  of  the  kingdom,  always 
insolent  and  always  needy,  became  debtors.t 

The  active  brains  and  the  industrious  fingers  of 
the  people  grasped  so  vast  a  portion  of  the  public 
wealth,  that  it  was  found,  on  the  opening  of  Parlia- 
ment in  1628,  that  the  House  of  Commons  was  three 
times  as  rich  as  the  House  of  Lords.J 

Animated  by  this  discovery,  the  yeomen  next 

turned  to  examine  how  much  the  despotism  of  six 

decades  had  left  them.     They  were  surprised  here 

f  also.    Though  for  a  long  time  strangers  to  resist- 

o  Bancroft  f  Clarendon,  Hist,  of  the  Kebellion. 

X  Hume,  vol.  2 ;  Sanderson,  Walker. 


248 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


ance,  the  Commons  bad  still  the  means  of  resistance 
in  their  hand.  Parliament  had  not  ceased  to  meet; 
sovereigns,  finding  it  submissive,  having  often  em- 
ployed it  as  an  instrument  of  their  tyrapny.  Under 
Henry,  Mary,  and  Elizabeth,  juries  had  shown 
themselves  complaisant  and  even  servile,  but  tliey 
still  existed.  The  towns  had  preserved  their  char- 
ters, the  corporations  their  immunities.  England 
did  not  lack  free  institutions  half  so  much  as  the 
disposition  and  will  to  use  them.*  The  forms  were 
largely  on  the  side  of  liberty ;  now,  disgusted  by 
the  exercise  of  absolute  power  and  enlightened  by 
Christianity,  the  spirit  and  the  purpose  of  the  mid- 
dle classes  began  to  vivify  these  old,  dead  forms. 

Such  was  the  temper  of  England  when  Charles 
I.  grasped  his  father's  overgrown  sceptre.  There 
was  much  in  the  young  king  to  placate  resentment. 
He  was  orderly,  chaste,  sober,  and  religious  so  far 
as  regarded  the  outward  ceremonies  of  the  faith, 
yet  tinged  with  superstition  and  with  bigotry,  t 
"Sickened  of  the  meanness,  the  talkative  and  fa- 
miliar pedantry,  the  inert  and  pusillanimous  poli- 
tics of  James,  England  looked  forward  to  happiness 
and  liberty  under  a  king  whom  she  could  respect."J 

Neither  Charles  nor  England  knew  how  much 
they  were  estranged  from  each  other. 

The  king's  education  had  been  unfortunate.  He 
was  taught  to  think  that  the  maxims  of  absolutism 


<*  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  11. 

t  Perinchief  8  Life  of  Charles  I.  ;  Womick's  Memoirs ;  Claren- 
don. X  Guizot,  voL  1,  p.  2. 


THE  ENGLISH  COMMONS. 


249 


knew  no  limit;*  he  imbibed  an  early  and  severe 
aversion  to  Puritanism  both  in  church  and  state  ;t 
on  his  accession  he  adopted  his  father's  favorite, 
the  weak  and  vain  Villiers ;  and  though  he  had  good 
natural  abilities,  yet  he  surrendered  into  the  hands 
of  minions  the  substance  of  that  arbitrary  power  of 
which  he  w^as  enamoured ;  "  nor  was  he  ever  mas- 
ter of  so  much  judgment  in  politics  as  to  discern 
his  ow^n  and  the  nation's  true  interest,  or  to  take 
the  advice  of  those  who  did."  J 

He  had  a  habit  of  duplicity.§  Like  his  father, 
he  esteemed  his  promises  as  mere  make-shifts,  as 
expedients  simply  intended  to  tide  over  shallow 
spots ;  and  when  he  had  pawned  his  "  royal  word  *' 
to  England,  his  design  was  to  elude  the  public  ex- 
pectation. 11  He  had  not  the  art  to  please;!  and 
with  all  his  hypocrisy,  he  lacked  what  James  I. 
called  hingcrafL 

Charles  had  recently  returned  from  Spain, 
whither  he  had  gone  with  the  purpose  of  contract- 
ing a  marriage  with  the  Infanta.  "  He  had  been 
received  at  Madrid  with  gi-eat  honors,  and  there 
he  saw  monarchy  in  all  its  splendor — majestic,  su- 
preme— exacting  both  from  its  attendants  and  from 
the  people  a  devotedness  and  a  respect  almost  re- 


o  Eapin,  Hist.  Eng.,  vol.  2,  p.  570 ;  Sidney's  State  Papers ; 
Hume.  t  Kushworth,  vol.  1 ;  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  401. 

X  Neale. 
§  Newell,  p.  249 ;  King's  Cabinet  Opened,  p.  4 ;  Sidney's  State 

Papers. 

II  Kushworth,  Hume,  Kapin ;  Harris,  Life  of  Charles  I. 
ir  Hackett's  Life  of  Bishop  Williams,  vol.  1,  p.  210. 

11* 


250 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


ligions ;  rarely  contradicted,  and  always  sure  of  car- 
rying all  before  it,  the  sovereign,  by  his  will  alone, 
being  above  all  opposition."*  The  Spanish  match 
fell  through,  and  Charles  married  Henrietta  Maria 
of  France,  the  daughter  of  Henri  Quatre.  "The 
impressions  made  on  the  English  prince  by  this 
union  were  similar  to  those  received  in  Spain,  and 
henceforth  the  monarchies  of  Paris  and  Madrid 
became  in  his  eyes  a  model  of  the  natural  and  legit- 
imate  condition  of  a  king."t 

Of  course  such  a  prince  could  not  read  the  por- 
tents of  his  time.  Charles  never  comprehended  his 
epoch ;  he  was  destined  to  lose  his  life  in  a  mad  tilt 
against  the  gravitation  of  his  century. 

In  1625  Parliament  met.  "It  was  almost  a 
senate  of  kings  that  an  absolute  monarch  called 
around  his  throne.  Neither  prince  nor  people,  but 
least  of  all  the  latter,  had  as  yet  unravelled  the 
principle  or  measured  the  strength  of  their  claims ; 
they  met  with  the  sincere  hope  and  intention  of 
settling  any  differences  which  might  exist,  when,  in 
fact,  their  disunion  was  already  consummated,  for 
they  all  thought  as  sovereigns.":|: 

This  radical  disagreement  was  soon  developed. 
Parliament  instituted  a  boundless  and  searching 
examination  of  public  affairs,  and  refused  to  grant 
the  king  the  requisite  subsidies  to  carry  on  the  war 
which  then  raged  with  Spain,  until  he  redressed  the 
national  grievances.§ 


*  Gnizot,  Neale,  Hume.  f  Ibid. 

§  Old  Pari.  Hist.,  vol.  6,  p.  407. 


t  Ibid. 


THE  ENGLISH  COMMONS. 


251 


Charles,  indignant  at  the  boldness  of  the  Com- 
mons in  standing  upon  terms  with  him,  dissolved 
the  Parliament.^  His  next  step  was  clearly  uncon- 
stitutional. He  attempted  to  coerce  a  loan.t  The 
success  of  this  move  was  problematical ;  but  with 
the  sum  thus  "borrowed"  an  expedition  was 
launched  against  Cadiz,  which  failed  miserably, 
owing  "to  the  ignorance  of  the  admiral  and  the 
drunkenness  of  the  troops. "t 

Six  months  after  the  dissolution  of  the  first  par- 
liament, the  chagrined  king,  pinched  for  funds  and 
wdth  an  empty  exchequer,  was  obliged  to  convene 
the  Commons  and  request  a  legitimate  supply.§ 
In  order  to  bar  out  of  the  new  parliament  the  most 
active  and  obnoxious  members  of  the  old  one,  he 
had  them  named  sheriffs  of  their  respective  coun- 
ties, a  nomination  which  disqualified  them  for  a 
reelection  to  the  House.ll  Among  the  victims  of 
this  trick  were  Sir  Edward  Coke,  and  Sir  Thomas 
Wentworth,  then  a  popular  orator  with  Puritanical 
predilections.l 

But  notwithstanding  the  king's  efforts  to  win- 
now out  the  stoutest  champions  of  the  people,  this 
parliament  proved  more  stubborn  and  decided  than 
its  predecessor.  It  not  only  withheld  all  subsidies, 
it  impeached  the  duke  of  Buckingham.** 

The  king,  incensed  by  this  action,  seized  two  of 

o  Old  Pari.  Hist.,  vol.  6,  p.  407. 

f  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  193 ;  Neale,  Guizot. 

X  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  22. 

§  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  193 ;  Neale,  Rushworth.  ||  Ibid. 

IT  Neale.  **  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  194. 


252         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

the  managers  of  the  impeacliment  and  threw  them 
into  the  Tower  ;*  then  turning  to  the  Commons,  he 
ominously  hinted  that  unless  they  speedily  fur- 
nished him  with  the  required  supplies,  he  should 
be  obliged  to  try  new  counsels.\  Lest  the  ambigu- 
ity of  this  phrase  should  puzzle  the  Commons,  the 
vice-chamberlain  informed  the  House  that  Charles 
meant,  in  case  of  further  opposition,  to  abolish 
Parliament,  and  govern  alone.  "  Let  us  be  careful 
then,"  he  added, "  to  preserve  the  king's  good  opin- 
ion of  Parliament,  lest  we  be  stripped  of  our  repute 
as  a  free  people  by  our  turbulency." 

"These  imprudent  suggestions,"  says  Hume, 
"rather  gave  warning  than  struck  terror.  The 
Commons  thought  that  a  precarious  liberty,  which 
was  to  be  preserved  by  unlimited  complaisance, 
was  no  liberty ;  and  it  was  necessary,  while  yet  in 
their  power,  to  secure  the  Constitution  by  such  in- 
vincible barriers,  that  no  king  or  minister  should 
ever  for  the  future  dare  to  speak  such  words  to  any 

parliament,  "t 

Instantly  all  business  stopped.  The  House 
boldly  proclaimed  its  ultimatum— i\\Q  immediate 
release  of  its  incarcerated  members,  or  national 
bankruptcy.  At  last  Charles  yielded;  the  im- 
peachers  were  set  free  ;§  and  incited  by  this  exam- 
ple, the  House  of  Lords  demanded,  as  its  sine  qua 
non,  the  unconditional  liberation   of  the   earl   of 


THE  ENGLISH  COMMONS. 


253 


/^ 


«  Hume,  Enshworth,  Clarendon,  etc. 

t  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  195. 

§  Ibid.,  Guizot,  Neale,  Perry. 


X  Ibid. 


Arundel,  who  had  been  recently  confined  in  the 
Towjsr.     To  this  also  the  enraged  and  beaten  king 

assenu  -^i.* 

The  :k:  -liament  then  fell  once  more  upon  their 
grievances.  The  encroachments  of  Rome  occa- 
sioned great  anxiety.  The  queen,  a  "  lady  of  a 
haughty  spirit,  and  a  great  wit  and  beauty,"  was  a 
Romanist;  and  trooping  into  England,  ostensibly 
in  her  suite,  came  a  swarm  of  papists.t  Charles 
openly  favored  them,  and  influenced  by  his  exam- 
ple, they  "matched  into  the  best  families  of  the 
island.":]: 

The  Arminian  schism  also  troubled  the  Com- 
mons. Eventually  a  committee  on  religion  was 
appointed,  but  it  was  soon  gagged  by  the  king,  who 
informed  the  House  that  his  supremacy  had  cogni- 
zance of  religious  differences. §  This  fiat  wrested 
these  questions  from  the  decision  of  the  Parlia- 
ment; but  the  debate,  adjourned  to  the  lobbies, 
still  raged  fiercely,  until  a  royal  proclamation  com- 
manded all  to  cease  expressing  an  opinion  on  the 
controverted  points.ll  "  The  Puritans  thought  that 
they  might  still  write  in  defence  of  the  received 
doctrine  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles ;  but  since  the 
press  was  in  the  hands  of  their  adversaries,  some  of 
their  books  were  suppressed,  some  were  mutilated, 
and  others  which  got  abroad  were  called  in,  while 
the  authors  and  publishers  were  questioned  in  the 

o  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  195 ;  Guizot,  Neale,  Perry, 
t  Memoirs  of  Col.  Hutchinson,  by  his  Wife ;  Edinburgh  ed., 
p.  85.  X  Ibid.  §  Ibid.  ||  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  410. 


262 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


the  managers  of  the  impeacliment  and  threw  them 
into  the  Tower  f  then  turning  to  the  Commons,  he 
ominously  hinted  that  unless  they  speedily  fur- 
nished him  with  the  required  supplies,  he  should 
be  obliged  to  try  neiv  counsels.^  Lest  the  ambigu- 
ity of  this  phrase  should  puzzle  the  Commons,  the 
vice-chamberlain  informed  the  House  that  Charles 
meant,  in  case  of  further  opposition,  to  abolish 
Parliament,  and  govern  alone.  "  Let  us  be  careful 
then,'*  he  added,  "to  preserve  the  king's  good  opin- 
ion of  Parliament,  lest  we  be  stripped  of  our  repute 
as  a  free  people  by  our  turbulency." 

"These  imprudent  suggestions,"  says  Hume, 
"rather  gave  warning  than  struck  terror.  The 
Commons  thought  that  a  precarious  liberty,  which 
was  to  be  preserved  by  unlimited  complaisance, 
was  no  liberty ;  and  it  was  necessary,  while  yet  in 
their  power,  to  secure  the  Constitution  by  such  in- 
vincible barriers,  that  no  king  or  minister  should 
ever  for  the  future  dare  to  speak  such  words  to  any 

parliament.":t 

Instantly   all  business   stopped.      The    House 

boldly  proclaimed  its  ^dtimatum — the  immediate 
release  of  its  incarcerated  members,  or  national 
bankruptcy.  At  last  Charles  yielded;  the  im- 
peachers  were  set  free  ;§  and  incited  by  this  exam- 
ple, the  House  of  Lords  demanded,  as  its  sine  qua 
no7i,  the  unconditional  liberation   of  the  earl  of 


^  Hume,  Rushworth,  Clarendon,  etc. 

t  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  195. 

§  Ibid.,  Guizot,  Neale,  Perry. 


X  Ibid. 


THE  ENGLISH  COMMONS. 


253 


Arundel,  who  had  been  recently  confined  in  the 
Tower.  To  this  also  the  enraged  and  beaten  king 
assented.* 

.  The  Parliament  then  fell  once  more  upon  their 
grievances.  The  encroachments  of  Rome  occa- 
sioned great  anxiety.  The  queen,  a  "  lady  of  a 
haughty  spirit,  and  a  great  wit  and  beauty,"  was  a 
Romanist;  and  trooping  into  England,  ostensibly 
in  her  suite,  came  a  swarm  of  papists.t  Charles 
openly  favored  them,  and  influenced  by  his  exam- 
ple, they  "matched  into  the  best  families  of  the 
island.":]: 

The  Arminian  schism  also  troubled  the  Com- 
mons. Eventually  a  committee  on  religion  was 
appointed,  but  it  was  soon  gagged  by  the  king,  who 
informed  the  House  that  his  supremacy  had  cogni- 
zance of  religious  differences. §  This  fiat  wrested 
these  questions  from  the  decision  of  the  Parlia- 
ment; but  the  debate,  adjourned  to  the  lobbies, 
still  raged  fiercely,  until  a  royal  proclamation  com- 
manded all  to  cease  expressing  an  opinion  on  the 
controverted  points.il  "  The  Puritans  thought  that 
they  might  still  write  in  defence  of  the  received 
doctrine  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles;  but  since  the 
press  was  in  the  hands  of  their  adversaries,  some  of 
their  books  were  suppressed,  some  were  mutilated, 
and  others  which  got  abroad  were  called  in,  while 
the  authors  and  publishers  were  questioned  in  the 


•  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  195 ;  Guizot,  Neale,  Perry, 
t  Memoirs  of  Col.  Hutchinson,  by  his  Wife  ;  Edinburgh  ed., 
p.  85.  t  Ibid.  §  Ibid.  |i  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  410. 


254: 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


Star-chamber  and  High  Commission  courts,  for  en- 
gaging in  a  controversy  prohibited  bj  the  govern- 
ment. Half  a  dozen  bishops,  called  Arminians,  un- 
dertook to  decide  on  the  truth  or  error  of  the  writ- 
ings of  all  the  wise  and  great  men  of  the  nation,  in 
doing  which  they  were  so  partial  that  learning  and 
industry  were  discouraged ;  men  of  gravity  and  great 
^experience  not  being  able  to  persuade  themselves 
to  submit  their  labors  to  be  mangled  and  torn  in 
pieces  by  a  few  younger  divines  who  were  both 
judges  and  parties  in  the  affair.  At  length  the 
booksellers,  being  nearly  ruined,  prepared  a  peti- 
tion, in  which  they  complained  that  the  writings  of 
the  best  authors  were  stifled  in  the  press,  while  the 
books  of  their  adversaries,  papists  and  Arminians, 
were  published  and  spread  over  the  whole  king- 
dom."* Kushworth  records  that,  while  the  edge  of 
the  law  was  turned  towards  the  Puritans  to  stop 
their  mouths,  their  opponents  were  permitted  to 
give  uncontrolled  liberty  to  their  tongues  and  pens. 
At  this  juncture,  Charles,  hopeless  of  wringing 
money  from  the  Parliament,  and  determined  not 
to  accede  to  their  just  demands,  prorogued  both 
HouseSjt  and  proceeded  to  follow  the  example  of 
the  Paris  and  Madrid  monarchies. 

0  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  410,  411. 

t  Pari.  Hist.,  vol.  2,  p.  193.    Whitelocke's  Memorials  of  Eng. 
Affairs. 


THE   **NEW  COUNSELS." 


265 


CHAPTEE  XIX. 

THE   "NEW  COUNSELS." 

The  heedless  king  had  already  trodden  on  the 
magna  cliarta ;  he  now  took  another  step  towards 
that  ghastly  "Whitehall  scaffold. 

The  "wei^  counsels'^  which  Charles  had  men- 
tioned to  the  Parliament  were  now  to  be  tried.* 
Another  forced  loan  was  decreed  by  a  royal  ipse 
dixit:  commissioners  were  appointed  to  harvest 
this  filched  golden  crop;  and  they  were  empow- 
ered to  interrogate  the  refractory  on  the  grounds  of 
their  refusal,  to  learn  who  had  persuaded  them  to 
resist,  by  what  discourse,  and  with  what  design.f 

It  has  been  truly  said,  that  this  was  at  once  an 
attack  upon  the  fortunes  and  the  opinions  of  indi- 
viduals. Even  on  the  Continent,  the  most  absolute 
government  would  have  regarded  such  an  expedient 
as  high-handed,  irregular,  and  unequal.^  England 
now  had  a  taste  of  what  she  might  expect  from  an 
uncurbed  prerogative.  Gentlemen  of  birth  and 
character,  who  refused  to  lend  what  sum  the  Coun- 
cil was  pleased  to  demand  of  them,  were  taken  from 
their  residences  and  flung  into  distant  jails.§    The 

♦  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  197. 

f  Pari.  Hist.,  vol.  2 ;  Neale,  vol.  1 ;  Whitelocke's  Memorials. 

X  Hume.  §  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  411 ;  Eushworth,  Carlyle. 


256 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


poorer  classes  were  saddled  with  soldiers  who  dra- 
gooned whole  counties,*  or  else  they  were  themselves 
pressed  into  the  army.  The  seaports  and  maritime 
districts  were  commanded  to  supply  and  equip  a 
specified  number  of  armed  vessels,  this  being  the 
king's  initial  attempt  to  collect  ship-money.t  The 
city  of  London  was  rated  at  twenty  ships.  "  Why,'* 
cried  the  astonished  citizens,  "  that  is  a  larger  num- 
ber than  Elizabeth  demanded  to  repel  the  Spanish 
Armada."  The  reply  was,  "  The  precedents  of  the 
past  are  obedience,  not  objections.":}: 

To  justify  this  inquisitorial  tyranny,  the  doctrine 
of  passive  obedience  was  everywhere  preached.§ 
The  court  clergy  made  the  island  echo  with  their 
slavish  pleas.  One  of  these  sermons  was  brought 
to  Archbishop  Abbot,  the  able  and  sincerely  pious 
successor  of  Bancroft,  to  be  licensed.  The  honest 
prelate  read  it  with  disgust,  then  threw  it  from  him ; 
he  would  not  sully  the  Canterbury  imprimatur  by 
affixing  it  to  so  despicable  a  pamphlet.  For  this. 
Abbot  was  suspended  from  all  his  archiepiscopal 
functions,  and  banished  to  one  of  his  country  seats. || 
The  archbishop's  principles  of  liberty,  together  with 
his  opposition  to  Buckingham,  had  always  given 
him  an  ungracious  reception  at  court,  where  he  had 
the  reputation  of  a  Puritan  ;  "  for  it  is  remarkable 
that  this  party  made  the  privileges  of  the  nation  as 


*  Guizot.  t  Hume,  Guizot,  Kushworth. 

%  Whitelocke's  Memorials,  etc.,  p.  7. 

§  Hume,  Neale,  Perry,  Lathbury,  Fuller,  etc. 

li  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  349,  and  on ;  Gukot,  Neale,  Perry. 


THE   *'NEW  COUNSELS." 


267 


much  a  part  of  their  religion  as  the  church  party 
did  the  prerogatives  of  the  crown."^  Though  he 
was  not  formally  impeached  off  the  bench.  Abbot, 
like  Grindal,  never  regained  his  forfeited  honors. 
His  offence  was  too  stupendous  for  pardon. 

Notwithstanding  its  arbitrary  course,  the  Coun- 
cil reaped  but  a  lean  harvest  of  guineas.  The  coun- 
try held  its  pounds  tightly  ;  the  metropolis  equivo- 
cated, invented  excuses,  made  pretences,  and  finally, 
when  closely  pressed,  flatly  refused  to  loan  a  shil- 

ling.t 

The  king,  pressed  and  tormented  for  'funds,  yet 
too  haughty  to  buy  a  supply  by  justice,  passed  from 
one  usurpation  to  another,  by  the  imprisonment  of 
those  from  whom  he  could  not  "  borrow."  Nay,  he 
insisted  that  the  judges  should  decree  it  as  a  prin- 
ciple, that  men  arrested  by  his  orders  should  not 
be  permitted  to  find  bail,  which  was  a  blow  at  one 
of  the  oldest,  best-defined  rights  of  Anglo-Saxon 
liberty. 

This  question  was  stirred  by  five  gentlemen,  who 
had  been  detained  on  the  complaint  of  the  royal 
Council,  and  who,  at  the  court  of  King's-Bench, 
claimed  to  be  set  free  on  bail.  J 

"  The  judges  rejected  the  demand  for  bail,  and 
remanded  the  prisoners  to  the  Tower,  but  without 
establishing  the  principle  the  king  had  prescribed ; 
for,  already  struck  with  a  double  fear,  they  neither 
dared  show  themselves  servile  nor  just ;  and  to  save 


*  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  198. 


t  Ibid.,  p.  197. 


\  Hume,  Guizot,  Hutchinson,  Memoirs,  etc. 


\ 


268         HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

themselves  from  trouble,  they  refused  their  consent 
to  despotism,  and  their  aid  to  liberty."* 

The  king's  exchequer  had  now  gotten  as  low  as 
the  national  expenses  had  mounted  high.  In  this 
strait,  says  Neale,  he  had  recourse  to  the  Eoman- 
ists,  from  whom  he  "  got  a  good  round  sum  by  issu- 
ing a  commission  to  the  archbishop  of  York  to  com- 
pound with  them  for  forfeitures  which  had  accrued 
in  the  past,  or  which  might  fall  due  in  future."t 
This  expedient  did  indeed  momentarily  fill  the  royal 
coffers,  while  it  gratified  the  inclination  of  the  mon- 
arch to  give  indulgence  to  those  religionists.  J  But 
this  fatal  policy  di'ove  many  who  were  well-affected 
to  the  Establishment,  but  opposed  to  Komanism, 
into  the  Puritan  camp,§  which  now  began  to  bo 
esteemed  the  only  Protestant  rendezvous,  as  it  had 
long  been  held  to  be  the  citadel  of  civil  hberty. 

The  long  unfed  and  hungry  expenses  of  the  king 
speedily  ate  up  the  new  contents  of  the  lean  ex- 
chequer, and  the  court  was  again  pinched  by  sharp 
want.  Yet  bankrupt  and  almost  without  an  army, 
engaged  akeady  in  a  struggle  with  the  house  of 
Austria,  standing  at  home  on  the  verge  of  an  abyss, 
while  the  irritation  of  the  nation  became  daily  more 
aggressive,  baffled  in  his  domestic  programme  and 
in  his  foreign  policy,  the  crazy  king  flimg  down  the 
gauntlet  to  Kichelieu,  and  plunged  chaotic  England 
into  the  arena  against  Erance.l 


THE  ''NEW  COUNSELS.'* 


259 


•  Guizot,  vol.  1,  pp.  30,  31.  f  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  411. 

X  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  197.  §  Neale,  Hume,  Carlyle. 

II  Hume,  vol.  2 ;  Clarendon,  vol.  1 ;  Guizot,  Carlyle,  Perry, 


This  war  was  created  by  the  intrigues  of  a  licen- 
tious courtier.  YiUiers  of  Buckingham,  desiring  to 
return  to  Paris  that  he  might  prosecute  an  amour 
with  Anne  of  Austria,  begun  when  he  went  to  escort 
Henrietta  Maria  to  England,  and  for  which  he  had 
been  forbidden  the  kingdom  by  Louis  XIII.,*  pre- 
vailed on  his  royal  master,  who  was  his  puppet,  to 
undertake  this  mad  crusade ;  and  in  order  to  give 
it  a  color  of  popularity,  it  was  proclaimed  that  the 
object  of  the  war  was  to  succor  the  succumbing 

Huguenots.t 

History  scouts  this  pretext ;  for  his  majesty  and 
his  whole  court  had  a  mortal  aversion  to  the  Hu- 
guenots, who  closely  resembled  the  detested  Pu- 
ritans in  discipline  and  worship,  in  religion  and  in 
politics. t  " Buckingham  had  no  religion  at  all;  a 
portion  of  the  king's  counsellors  were  open  Roman- 
ists ;  the  rest  believed  that  there  was  no  salvation 
for  Protestants  outside  the  church  of  England ;  how 
then  can  it  be  credited  that  such  a  government,  an 
absurd  trinity  of  infidelity,  papistry,  and  Arminian- 
ism,  should  wage  war  in  defence  of  a  religion  which 
they  held  in  the  utmost  contempt  ?"§ 

Of  course  nothing  but  disaster  could  await  such 
hypocritical  and  senseless  politics.  A  monarchy 
proud  of  its  mihtary  prowess,  learned  one  day  that 
an  expedition,  conducted  by  Yilliers  in  person,  and 
intended  to  succor  La  Rochelle,  which  Richelieu 

o  Clarendon,  Hume,  Neale,  etc.  f  Ibid. 

X  Hume,  vol.  2,  pp.  200,  201 ;  Hist,  of  the  Huguenots,  Amer. 
Tract  Society,  1866.  §  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  414. 


230        HISTOKY  OF  t HE  PUKITANS. 

» 

was  slowly  starving  into  submission,  had  failed  mis- 
erably through  the  bungling  incapacity  of  its  chief, 
and  that  Buckingham  was  returning  to  England 
with  a  loss  of  two-thirds  of  his  force,  and  totally  dis- 
credited both  as  an  admiral  and  as  a  general.* 

Throughout  the  island  "  a  multitude  of  families, 
beloved  and  respected  by  the  people,  were  in  mourn- 
ing. The  indignation  became  intense.  The  farmer 
left  his  fields,  the  apprentice  quitted  his  shop,  to 
inquire  whether  his  master,  a  gentleman  or  citizen, 
had  not  lost  a  brother  or  a  son ;  and  they  returned 
to  their  neighbors  with  an  account  of  the  disasters 
they  had  heard,  of  the  trouble  they  had  seen,  curs- 
ing Buckingham  and  censuring  the  king."t 

Losses  of  another  kind  still  further  imbittered 
the  people,  and  especially  the  mercantile  classes. 
The  French  navy  endangered  the  safety  and  wreck-, 
ed  the  prosperity  of  English  commerce ;  their  ves- 
sels rotted  in  port;  their  merchandise  reposed  in 
their  warehouses;  while  the  sailors,  unemployed, 
talked  of  the  recent  defeat  of  the  royal  fleet,  and  of 
the  causes  of  their  own  inaction.  The  gentry,  the 
citizens,  and  the  people  became  daily  more  closely 
united  in  one  common  feeling  of  resentment  and 
disgust.  I 

When  Buckingham  landed,  even  his  hauteur 
was  awed  by  the  scoffs  which  smote  him.§  But  the 
unhappy  king,  anxious  to  screen  his  favorite,  and 
compelled  to  settle  a  new  programme,  was  per- 


o  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  201. 
X  Ibid. 


t  Guizot,  vol.  1.  pp.  31,  32. 
§  Clarendon,  Netvle,  Guizot 


THE  **NEW  COUNSELS. 


>  > 


261 


f 


I 


suaded  to  propitiate  public  opinion  by  giving  out 
that  Villiers  had  urged  the  convocation  of  the  Par- 
liament."^ "  Gain  our  hearts,"  said  Sir  Eobert  Col- 
ton,  one  of  the  mildest  of  the  popular  leaders,  to  the 
king,  quoting  the  words  of  Burleigh  to  Elizabeth— 
"  gain  our  hearts,  and  you  will  soon  have  our  arms 

and  purses." t 

Charles,  spurred  by  necessity,  went  now  to  the 
extreme  of  complaisance.  The  prisons  were  flung 
open ;  seventy-eight  state-prisoners  were  released, 
twenty-seven  of  whom  were  elected  to  the  new  Par- 
Hament;t  and  in  1628,  the  jubHant  Commons  met 
at  Westminster.§ 

Meanwhile  the  king  had  a  relapse.  In  his  speech 
at  the  opening  session  of  Parliament,  he  threatened 
that,  unless  speedily  relieved  from  his  embarrass- 
ments, he  would  again  resort  to  the  '' neiv  coun- 
sels,'! "A  haughty  soUcitor,  sinking  under  the 
weight  of  his  faults  and  his  misfortunes,  he  yet 
threatened  to  employ  that  independent  and  abso- 
lute monarchy  which  set  him  above  all  errors  and 
reverses.  So  infatuated  was  he  with  his  own  su- 
premacy, that  it  never  entered  into  his  mind  that  it 
could  su^er  any  change ;  and  full  of  arrogance,  yet 
sincere,  he  thought  it  due  to  his  honor  and  his  rank 
to  assume  the  tone  and  claim  the  rights  of  tyranny, 
even  while  borrowing  the  assistance  of  Hberty."t 

o  Pari.  Hist.,  vol.  2,  col.  218.  t  I^i^.,  col.  212-217. 

\  Rushworth,  vol.  1,  p.  473 ;  Clarendon. 

§  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  202. 

II  Pari.  Hist.,  vol.  2,  col.  218;  Guizot,  Rushworth. 

IT  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  34. 


If 


262         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


But  tlie  Commons  were  as  proud  and  inflexible 
as  the  king  was  imperious.     They  were  unmoved  bj 
the  royal  threats.     "  They  were  resolved  solemnly 
to  proclaim  their  liberties,  to  oblige  the  court  to 
acknowledge  them  as  primitive  and  independent, 
and  to  permit  henceforth  no  right  to  pass  for  a  con- 
cession, nor  to  allow  any  encroachment  on  the  fun- 
damental laws.    Neither  leaders  nor  followers  were 
lacking  for  this  grand  design.     The  whole  nation 
rallied  round  the  Parliament.     Within  this  sanctu- 
ary bold  and  clever  men  consulted  how  it  should 
be  accomplished.     Sir  Edward  Coke,*  the  pride  of 
magistracy,  no  less  illustrious  for  his  firmness  than 
for  his  knowledge ;  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth,  after- 
wards Lord  Strafford,  young,  ardent,  eloquent,  born 
to  command,  and  whose  ambition  was  then  satis- 
fied with  the  admiration  of  his  country  ;t  Denzil 
Hollis,  the  youngest  son  of  Lord  Clare,  in  child- 
hood the  companion  of  Charles,  but  the  sincere 
friend  of  liberty,  and  too  proud  to  serve  under  a 
favorite  \X  Pym,  a  learned  barrister,  eminently  skill- 
ed in  the  knowledge  of  the  rights  and  customs  of 
Parliament,  cold,  yet  daring,  and  well  knowing  how 
to  conduct  himseK  with  prudence  as  a  leader  of  pop- 
ular passions  ;§  and  many  others,  destined,  within  a 
time  much  less  than  any  of  them  could  anticipate, 

♦  "Bom  at  Mileham,  in  Norfolk,  1549 ;  he  was  then  seventy- 
nine  years  of  age." 

t  "Born  at  London,  1593  ;  he  was  then  thirty-five  years  of  age." 
%  "Bom  at  Hampton,  1597  ;  he  was  then  thirty-one  years  old." 
§  "Bom  in  Somersetshire,  1584 ;  he  was  then  forty-four  years 
of  age."    Guizot. 


THE  "NEW  COUNSELS." 


263 


to  diverse  fortunes  and  even  opposite  parties,  were 
now  united  by  the  same  principles  and  hopes.  To 
this  fearful  coalition  the  court  could  only  oppose 
the  power  of  custom,  the  capricious  temerity  of 
Buckingham,  and  the  haughty  obstinacy  of  the 
king."^ 

Thus  far  the  Commons  had  triumphed.  "All 
unlawful  projects  to  quench  the  thirst  of  the  king's 
necessities,"  says  Fuller,  "had  proved  no  better 
than  sucking-bottles,  soon  emptied,  and  but  cold 
the  liquor  they  afforded.  Nothing  so  natural  as 
the  milk  of  the  breast ;  that  is,  subsidies  granted 
by  Parliament.  But  alas,  to  follow  the  metaphor, 
both  the  breasts,  the  two  houses,  were  so  sore 
with  several  grievances,  that  all  money  flowed  from 
them  with  pain  and  difficulty ;  the  rather  because 
complaints  were  made  of  doctrines  destructive  to 
their  propriety,  lately  preached  and  sanctioned  at 

court."t 

Five  subsidies  were  voted  the  king;  but  the 
Commons  refused  to  carry  the  bill  through  the 
house  until  the  royal  assent  was  obtained  to  a  peti- 
tion of  rights  which  reaffirmed  the  essential  clauses 
of  magna  cliarta:  that  no  freeman  should  be  de- 
tained in  prison  by  the  king  and  privy-council,  with- 
out an  expression  of  the  cause  of  commitment  for 
which  by  law  he  ought  to  be  detained;  that  the 
habeas  corpus  should  not  be  denied  where  the  law 
allowed  it ;  that  no  tax,  loan,  or  benevolence  should 
be  imposed  without  the  consent  of  Parliament; 

♦  Guizot,  vol.  1,  pp.  34,  35.  t  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  352. 


264 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THE  *'NEW  COUNSELS.'* 


265 


that  no  man  should  be  forejudged  of  life  or  limb, 
or  be  exiled  or  destroyed,  but  by  the  judgment  of 
his  peers,  according  to  the  law  of  the  land,  or  by 
act  of  Parliament.* 

Charles  was  greatly  elated  when  apprized  of  the 
vote  of  subsidies  ;t  but  when  he  learned  of  the  con- 
ditions of  the  grant,  his  rage  was  boundless.  A 
fierce  struggle  ensued.  The  king,  borrowing  the 
tone  of  Elizabeth,  forbade  ParHament  to  meddle 
in  affairs  of  state. |  But  the  firmness  of  the  Com- 
mons eventually  carried  the  day ;  and  Charles,  foiled 
again  and  trembling  for  the  subsidies,  assented  to 
the  bill  of  rights ;  and  while  he  got  his  gold,  the 
nation  guaranteed  its  liberties.§ 

While  the  Commons  were  busied  in  diffusing 
printed  copies  of  this  law  over  England,!!  the  upper 
house  was  employed  in  reprimanding  the  preach- 
ers of  passive  obedience ;  and  one  Man  waring,  "  a 
man  so  criminous  that  he  turned  his  titles  into  ac- 
cusations," to  quote  Pym's  strong  phrase,  was  sum- 
moned before  the  bar  of  the  House,  and  forced  to 
make  an  humble  submission,  couched  in  words 
drawn  up  by  the  Lords. IT 

Charles  had  hoped  that  the  concession  of  the 
petition  of  rights  would  give  him  a  respite ;  instead 
of  which  he  was,  within  a  few  days,  presented  with 
two  new  remonstrances:  one  against  VilUers,  the 

o  Pari.  Hist.,  vol.  2,  col.  278.  f  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  36. 

X  Pari.  Hist.,  col.  401. 

§  Ibid.,  col.  409 ;  Rushworth,  vol.  1,  p.  612. 

II  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  45. 

^  Puller,  vol.  3,  pp.  352-355 ;  Perry,  Neale,  Carlyle,  etc. 


If 


other  against  the  arbitrary  collection  of  the  ton- 
nage and  poundage  taxes.^ 

The  king  then  lost  patience,  and  hastening  to 
Westminster  Hall,  he  prorogued  the  Parliament.t 

Two  months  later,  in  June,  1628,  Buckingham 
was  murdered.J    The  people,  while  deprecating  the 
act,  rejoiced  in  their  deliverance.    But  this  assas- 
sination threw  the  king  back  into  tyranny.     "  He 
again  bestowed  his  favor  upon  the  adversaries  of 
Parhament.     Montague,  whom  the  Commons  had 
prosecuted,  was  promoted  to  the  bishopric  of  Chi- 
chister;    Manwaring,  whom  the  House  of  Lords 
had  condemned,  was  endowed  with  a  rich  benefice; 
Laud,  already  famous  for  enthusiastic  devotion  to 
the  most  arbitrary  maxims  of  ecclesiastical  and  civil 
government,  was  translated  to  the  see  of  London. 
Public  acts  corresponded  with  covert  favors.     The 
tonnage  and  poundage  duty  was  rigorously  collect- 
ed, and  the  tribunals  of  exception  continued  to  sus- 
pend the  course  of  law.     Silently  entering  upon  an- 
other career  of  despotism,  Charles  had  some  reason 
to  hope  for  success.     He  had  detached  from  the 
Puritan  party  one  of  its  most  distinguished  Jead- 
ers  and  briUiant  orators :  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth 

«  Pari.  Hist.,  vol.  2,  col.  420,  431. 

f  Ibid.,  Rushworth,  Hume,  Clarendon. 

t  "In  the  hat  of  Pel  ton,  his  murderer,  a  paper  was  found  on 
which  the  last  remonstrance  of  the  House  was  quoted.  Felton  did 
not  seek  to  escape,  nor  to  defend  himself,  but  only  said  that  he 
looked  on  the  duke  as  the  enemy  of  the  kingdom,  and  shook  his 
head  when  questioned  as  to  his  accomplice.  He  died  with  com- 
posure."   Guizot 

PurlUng.  J  2 


266 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THE   "NEW  COUNSELS." 


was  made  a  peer,  a  privy-counsellor,  and  the  king's 
chief  minister ;  and  now,  surrounded  by  new  friends, 
supported  by  a  remodelled  cabinet,  abler,  more  seri- 
ous, less  unpopular  than  Buckingham's  coterie  had 
been,  Charles  awaited  the  second  session  of  his 
third  Parliament  without  fear  or  dread."* 

In  the  winter  of  1629,  Parliament  met  according 
to  prorogation,  and  they  immediately  opened  their 
budget  of  grievances.  They  complained  of  the 
arbitrary  action  of  the  abnormal  courts  of  High 
Commission  and  Star-chamber  ;t  of  the  duplicity 
of  the  king  in  ordering  his  printer  to  alter  the 
legal  text  of  the  bill  of  rights,  and  to  substitute 
his  first  evasive  answer  for  his  final  assent; J  of 
the  favor  granted  to  false  doctrines;  of  the  bad 
distribution  of  dignities  and  employments;  and 
generally,  of  the  contempt  shown  for  the  liberties 
of  the  people.§ 

A  committee  on  religion  was  appointed.  Of  this 
Oliver  Cromwell,  then  in  the  lower  house,  was  a 
leading  member.  There  this  extraordinary  man 
made  his  first  appearance  in  the  stormy  history  of 
the  age,  stuttering  and  stamping  through  his  maiden 
speech.  After  mentioning  the  recent  promotion  of 
Montague,  who  squinted  towards  Arminianism,  and 
of  Manwaring,  who  faced  towards  the  Vatican,  the 
future  Colossus  of  the  Ke volution  queried,  "  If  these 

0  Gtiizot,  vol.  1,  pp.  47,  48. 

f  Pari.  Hist.,  col.  438 ;  Clarendon. 

1  Ibid.,  vol.  2,  col.  435 ;  Kush worth. 
§  Rushwortb,  Pari.  Hist.,  Clarendon. 


267 


] 


be  the  paths  to  church  preferment,  whither  are  we 
drifting?"^ 

The  king  heard  this,  and  gnawed  his  lip  in  silent 
anger ;  but  shortly  a  violent  scene  in  the  House  of 
Commons  incensed  him  to  madness. 

Sir  John  Elliot  propqsed  a  new  remonstrance 
against  the  collection  of  tonnage  and  poundage  by 
the  king.  The  speaker  of  the  House,  pleading  an 
order  from  the  king,  refused  to  have  it  read,  and 
quitted  the  chair.  Instantly  all  was  uproar.  Sev- 
eral members  seized  the  retiring  speaker,  forced 
him  back  into  the  chair,  held  him  there,  and  then, 
with  doors  double-barred,  passed  an  act  declaring 
the  levying  of  tonnage  and  poundage  on  the  king's 
sole  authority  to  be  illegal,  and  branding  all  wlio 
should  either  pay  or  levy  such  taxes  as  guilty  of 
high  treason.t 

In  the  mean  time  Charles,  upon  being  acquainted 
with  the  uproar  and  its  cause,  ordered  his  guard  to 
force  the  doors  and  disperse  the  members.  But 
ere  he  could  be  obeyed,  the  Commons  had  adjourn- 
ed for  the  day.J 

Thwarted  in  this,  the  king  went  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  in  a  bitter  speech,  dissolved  the  ParHa- 
ment  siiie  die. 

This  done,  he  proceeded,  in  the  face  of  the 
recently  enacted  bill  of  rights  which  he  had  sol- 
emnly subscribed,  to  arrest  the  most  obnoxious 

*  Carlyle,  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches,  vol.  1. 
t  ParL  History,  vol.  2,  col.  487-491 ;  Rushworth,  Clarendon, 
Hume.  ^  X  Ibi<^ 


266 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


was  made  a  peer,  a  privy-counsellor,  and  the  king's 
chief  minister ;  and  now,  surrounded  by  new  friends, 
supported  by  a  remodelled  cabinet,  abler,  more  seri- 
ous, less  unpopular  than  Buckingham's  coterie  had 
been,  Charles  awaited  the  second  session  of  his 
third  Parliament  without  fear  or  dread."* 

In  the  winter  of  1629,  Parliament  met  according 
to  prorogation,  and  they  immediately  opened  their 
budget  of  grievances.  They  complained  of  the 
arbitrary  action  of  the  abnormal  courts  of  High 
Commission  and  Star-chamber  ;t  of  the  duplicity 
of  the  king  in  ordering  his  printer  to  alter  the 
legal  text  of  the  bill  of  rights,  and  to  substitute 
his  first  evasive  answer  for  his  final  assent  ;:j:  of 
the  favor  granted  to  false  doctrines ;  of  the  bad 
distribution  of  dignities  and  employments ;  and 
generally,  of  the  contempt  shown  for  the  liberties 
of  the  people.§ 

A  committee  on  religion  was  appointed.  Of  this 
Oliver  Cromwell,  then  in  the  lower  house,  was  a 
leading  member.  There  this  extraordinary  man 
made  his  first  appearance  in  the  stormy  history  of 
the  age,  stuttering  and  stamping  through  his  maiden 
speech.  After  mentioning  the  recent  promotion  of 
Montague,  who  squinted  towards  Arminianism,  and 
of  Man  waring,  who  faced  towards  the  Vatican,  the 
future  Colossus  of  the  Revolution  queried,  "  If  these 

0  Guizot,  vol.  1,  pp.  47,  48. 

f  Pari.  Hist.,  col.  438 ;  Clarendon. 

1  Ibid.,  vol.  2,  col.  435;  Rush  worth, 
§  Rnshworth,  Pari.  Hist.,  Clarendon. 


THE   "NEW  COUNSELS.'' 


267 


\ 


be  the  paths  to  church  preferment,  whither  are  we 
drifting?"^ 

The  king  heard  this,  and  gnawed  his  lip  in  silent 
anger ;  but  shortly  a  violent  scene  in  the  House  of 
Commons  incensed  him  to  madness. 

Sir  John  Elliot  propqsed  a  new  remonstrance 
against  the  collection  of  tonnage  and  poundage  by 
the  king.  The  speaker  of  the  House,  pleading  an 
order  from  the  king,  refused  to  have  it  read,  and 
quitted  the  chair.  Instantly  all  was  uproar.  Sev- 
eral members  seized  the  retiring  speaker,  forced 
him  back  into  the  chair,  held  him  there,  and  then, 
with  doors  double-barred,  passed  an  act  declaring 
the  levying  of  tonnage  and  poundage  on  the  king's 
sole  authority  to  be  illegal,  and  branding  all  who 
should  either  pay  or  levy  such  taxes  as  guilty  of 

high  treason.t 

In  the  mean  time  Charles,  upon  being  acquainted 
with  the  uproar  and  its  cause,  ordered  his  guard  to 
force  the  doors  and  disperse  the  members.  But 
ere  he  could  be  obeyed,  the  Commons  had  adjourn- 
ed for  the  day.J 

Thwarted  in  this,  the  king  went  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  in  a  bitter  speech,  dissolved  the  ParHa- 
ment  siiie  die. 

This  done,  he  proceeded,  in  the  face  of  the 
recently  enacted  bill  of  rights  which  he  had  sol- 
emnly subscribed,  to  arrest  the  most  obnoxious 

*  Carlyle,  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches,  vol.  1. 
f  Pari.  History,  vol.  2,  col.  487-491 ;  Rushworth,  Clarendon, 
Hnme.  X  I^id. 


268 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


members  of  the  Commons,  and  to  fling  them  into 
the  Tower.*  Here  the  popular  champions  were 
treated  with  equal  rigor  and  contempt ;  and  one  of 
them,  Sir  John  Elliot,  died  in  this  confinement,t  a 
martyr  to  political  Hberty. 

At  Hampton  Court  and  Whitehall  high  carnival 
was  held.  "  Those  who  were  papists  in  their  hearts 
and  those  who  were  so  openly — the  servants  and 
preachers  of  absolutism,  men  of  intrigue  and  of 
pleasure,  the  indifferent  to  all  creeds — already  con- 
gratulated each  other  on  this  crowning  triumph," 
and  cried,  "  The  people's  guns  are  spiked." 

But  the  rough  and  awkward  stammerer  of  the 
house  committee  on  religion  did  not  take  this 
courtier  view;  for  Cromwell  wrote  home,  "I  fear 
me  much  that  this  battle  is  not  yet  begum":j: 

<»  Pari.  History,  vol.  2,  col.  487-491 ;  Riishworth,  Clarendon, 
Hume.  The  members  arrested  were  Hollis,  Hobart,  Elliot,  Hay- 
man,  Selden,  Coriton,  Long,  Strode,  and  Valentine.  See  State 
Trials,  vol.  3,  pp.  235-335. 

t  Old  Pari.  Hist.,  vol.  8,  p.  374;  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  425,  etc. 

I  Carlyle,  Cromweirs  Letters,  etc. 


LAUD'S  PEELACY. 


269 


\ 


CHAPTEE   XX. 


LAUD'S   PRELACY. 


When  Yilliers  was  assassinated,  his  mantle  fell 
upon  the  united  shoulders  of  Strafford  and  Laud. 
These  men  became  the  brain  of  EngHsh  absolutism. 
One  affected  the  role  of  EicheHeu,  and  domineered 
in  politics ;  the  other  became  the  Fontifex-maximus 
of  the  church,  and  labored  with  the  fervid  zeal  of  a 
Loyola  to  consolidate  and  to  broaden  the  domain 
of  the  Establishment. 

Strafford  carried  with  him  into  the  king's  camp 
the  restless  energy  and  the  imperious  will  which 
had  distinguished  him  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Bold,  fertile  in  expedients,  tenacious  of  his  pur- 
pose, he  sought  to  systematize  tyranny— to  give  to 
despotism  the  forms  and  the  support  of  law.  In 
this  the  timid  arrogance  of  Charles  baulked  him, 
for  the  king  was  never  provident  for  the  future; 
satisfied  with  the  possession  of  arbitrary  power  to- 
day, he  never  thought  of  guaranteeing  it  for  the 
morrow.  This  inertia  clogged  all  Strafford's  exer- 
tions. "  Full  of  energy,  he  bore  the  yoke  of  weak- 
ness, and  his  foresight  was  lost  in  the  service  of  the 
bhnd." 

Laud,  born  at  Beading  and  educated  at  Oxford, 
where  he  resided  until  his  fiftieth  year,^  had  long 

o  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  402. 


¥ 


270         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUBITANS. 

been  an  enigma  even  to  liis  friends.  "  I  would  I 
knew,"  wrote  good  bishop  Hall  to  him  on  one  occa- 
sion, "  where  to  find  you ;  to-day  you  are  with  the 
Komanists,  to-morrow  with  us;  our  adversaries 
think  you  ours,  and  we  think  you  theirs :  your  con- 
science finds  you  with  both  and  neither.  How  long 
will  you  halt  in  this  uncertainty  ?"* 

Bred  to  the  church,  his  ecclesiastical  preferment 
had  been  marked.  Severe  in  his  conduct,  simple  in 
his  life,  rough  in  his  manners,  he  was  pushed  for- 
ward by  his  own  zealous  and  indefatigable  ardor. 
He  was  terribly  in  earnest,  and  he  was  fanatically 
devoted  to  power.  "To  command  and  to  punish 
was  in  his  eyes  to  establish  order,  and  order  always 
seemed  to  him  justice.  In  business  he  was  tireless, 
but  narrow,  violent,  and  stern.  At  once  incajDable 
of  balancing  interests  or  respecting  rights,  he  rashly 
persecuted  liberties  as  abuses.  Thwarting  some  by 
his  probity,  others  by  his  blind  animosity,  he  was 
as  rude  and  irritable  with  courtiers  as  with  citizens. 
He  sought  no  friendship ;  he  neither  foresaw  nor 
could  bear  any  resistance ;  and  he  was  constantly 
absorbed  by  some  fixed  notion  which  took  posses- 
sion of  him  ^^th  the  violence,  the  passion,  and  the 
authority  of  a  duty."t 

The  statesman  and  the  priest  never  interfered 
with  each  other.  Strafford  worked  out  his  prob- 
lems by  himself ;  Laud  asked  no  advice,  and  would 
take  none.  Strafford  endeavored  to  manipulate 
English  politics  into  despotic  precepts;  Laud  strug- 


i 

III 


LAUD'S  PRELACY. 


271 


o  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  402. 


t  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  61. 


gled  to  emancipate  the  Estabhshment  from  its  vas- 
salage to  the  crown,  and  then  to  compel  a  universal 
conformity.  Strafford  was  a  hidden  king;  Laud 
was  a  hidden  pope. 

At  the  Reformation,  the  temporal  sovereign 
had  in  some  respects  assumed  towards  the  English 
church  the  relations  before  held  by  the  pope."^ 

"  Churchmen  were  soon  aware  of  this  defect  in 
its  constitution ;  but  the  perils  to  which  it  was  ex- 
posed, and  the  high  hand  with  which  Henry  YIII., 
and  afterwards  Elizabeth,  carried  matters,  had  given 
it  no  chance  of  redress.  Attacked  at  once  by  the 
papists  and  the  non-conformists,  itself  doubtful  on 
many  points,  still  wavering  in  its  possessions  and 
doctrines,  the  church  feared  to  provoke  the  enmity 
of  its  new  head,  and  devoted  itself  without  restric- 
tion to  the  service  of  temporal  power,  acknowledg- 
ing its  own  dependence,  and  yielding  to  the  abso- 
lute supremacy  of  the  throne,  which  could  now  alone 
save  it  from  the  environing  perils. 

"  Towards  the  close  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  a  few 
isolated  symptoms  announced  rather  higher  pre- 
tensions on  the  part  of  the  clergy.  Bancroft  main- 
tained that  episcopacy  was  not  a  human  institution, 
but  that  it  had  been  firom  apostolic  times  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  church,  and  that  bishops  held  their 
rights,  not  from  a  temporal  sovereign,  but  from 
God.t    These  claims  were  haughtily  repressed  by 

*  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  76. 

f  The  sermon  alluded  to  was  preached  on  the  12th  of  January, 
1588.    Perry,  Nealo. 


272 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


LAUD'S  PRELACY. 


273 


the  despotism  of  the  arrogant  queen;  but  under 
James  L  they  were  once  more  mooted.  Zealous 
in  proclaiming  the  jus  clivimim  of ,  the  throne,  the 
church  began  to  plead  loudly  for  the  recognition  of 
its  own  divinity;  and  those  precepts  which  Ban- 
croft had  timidly  insinuated  were  now  openly 
avowed  by  the  bench  of  bishops."* 

When  Charles  and  his  Parliament  began  their 
quarrel,  and  the  Commons  deserted  the  throne,  the 
ilstablishment,  pointing  to  its  own  loyal  record, 
hinted  that  its  support  through  these  dark  hours 
could  be  won  by  the  recognition  of  its  claims. 
Charles,  who  was  sincerely  attached  to  the  Eng- 
lish church,  was  easily  persuaded  to  cede,  if  not  for- 
mally, at  least  essentially,  his  ecclesiastical  suprem- 
acy to  the  episcopal  authorities. t  Then  Laud,  who 
held  the  see  of  London,  began  to  think  of  increas- 
ing the  external  pomp  of  the  church,  and  of  subdu- 
ing Puritanism  to  uniformity. 

A  cruel  torture  now  began.  If  any  Puiitan 
chanced  to  hold  a  living,  he  was  at  once  dismissed. 
If  the  non-conformist,  gagged  in  the  pulpit,  turned 
to  other  pursuits,  persecution  dogged  him  and  block- 
ed each  new  avenue  in  which  he  essayed  to  tread. 
Starvation  or  conformity — this  was  the  inexorable 
alternative^ 

"  Puritan  churches  were  ^ized,  and  the  pomp 

*  Guizot,  vol.  1,  pp.  76,  77. 
t  Ibid. ,  p.  79 ;  Perry,  Lathbury. 

X  Neale,  Eushworth,  Carlyle.    See  the  account  in  Neale,  vol. 
1,  p.  452,  of  a  Mr.  Workman. 


of  the  Eomanist  worship  was  restored;  though 
persecution  kept  away  the  congregation,  a  profuse 
magnificence  adorned  the, walls.  New  churches 
were  consecrated  with  splendid  ceremony,  and  then 
the  people  were  driven  by  force  to  attend  them. 
Laud  was  fond  of  prescribing  minutely  the  details 
of  new  ceremonies,  sometimes  borrowed  from  the 
Eoman  ritual,  sometimes  invented  by  his  own  osten- 
tatious, yet  narrow  imagination.  The  least  inno- 
vation, the  least  deviation  of  the  non-conformists 
from  the  canons  of  the  Liturgy  was  punished  as  a 
crime;  while  Laud  innovated  without  consulting 
anybody,  generally  with  the  king's  consent,  but 
sometimes  on  his  own  authority.  He  changed  the 
interior  arrangements  of  the  churches,  the  forms  of 
worship,  imperiously  prescribing  forms  till  then 
unknown,  and  even  assumed  to  alter  the  Liturgy, 
which  many  parliaments  had  sanctioned ;  while  the 
result,  if  not  the  aim  of  all  these  alteration^,  was  to 
render  the  English  church  more  conformable  to 
that  of  Kome."* 

The  utmost  partiality  was  shown  to  the  Koman- 
ists.  The  press  groaned  beneath  the  load  of  pam- 
phlets issued  to  prove  the  similarity  between  Kome 
and  the  Establishment  ;t  and  these  were  dedicated 
to  Laud  or  to  the  king,  and  were  not  infrequently 
composed  by  theologians  in  exact  agreement  with 
the  court.J 

♦  Guizot,  vol.  1,  pp.  83,  84. 

\  Whitelocke's  Memorials,  etc.,  p.  21 ;  Guizot,  Neale. 

%  Ibid. 

12* 


274         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


At  the  same  time  the  Puritans  might  not  even 
defend  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  against  the  assaults 
of  the  Eomanist  publicists,  or  brush  away  the  ob- 
jections of  the  Paris  Sorbonne.* 

England  at  large  anticipated  the  speedy  recog- 
nition of  the  papal  primacy  ;t  so  that  when  a  daugh- 
ter of  the  duke  of  Devonshire  embraced  the  Koman 
faith,  she  replied  to  Laud,  who  had  asked  her  the 
reasons  for  her  change, "  'T  is  chiefly  because  I  hate 
to  travel  in  a  crowd ;  and  as  I  perceive  that  your 
grace  and  many  others  are  making  haste  to  Rome, 
I  wish  to  get  there  first,  to  escape  being  jostled.''^ 

The  nearer  the  English  church  went  to  Bome, 
the  tighter  it  choked  Puritanism ;  and  now  the  per- 
secution grew  so  bitter  and  so  searching,  that  many 
said  good-by  to  England,  and  crossed  the  sea  to 
join  their  exiled  brothers  on  the  Atlantic  slope  of 
the  western  continent.§  Bereaved  of  an  asylum  at 
home,  whole  families  flocked  every  summer  to  the 
American  colonies,  swelling  the  New  England  set- 
tlements of  Plymouth,  Massachusetts  Bay,  Connect- 
icut, and  New  Haven.ll  It  has  been  estimated  that 
four  thousand  planters  quitted  the  island  for  the 
New  World  during  the  fierce  regime  of  Laud,  and 
that  these  carried  with  them  five  hundred  pounds 
in  gold,  an  immense  sum  for  those  days.  Had 
Laud  reigned  twenty-four  years,  instead  of  twelve, 

o  Wliitelocke's  Memorials,  etc.,  p.  21 ;  Guizot,  Neale. 

f  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  84 ;  Neale. 

X  Whitelocke.     Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  218. 

§  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  436.  ||  Ibid. 


LAUD'S  PRELACY. 


275 


historians  assert  that  England  would  have  perma- 
nently lost  one-fourth  of  her  population,  and  would 
have  been  drained  of  a  third  of  her  wealth.* 

The  ebb  and  flow  of  this  exodus,  which  carried 
off  the  soberest,  most  industrious,  and  most  relig- 
ious citizens  of  the  island,  was  an  excellent  Nileom- 
eter,  and  showed  the  precise  height  of  the  tide  of 
persecution. 

But  Laud  found  England  too  narrow ;  and  if  it 
had  not  been,  he  was  too  philanthropic  to  confine 
his  exclusive  attentions  to  one  kingdom.  Like  Al- 
exander, he  pined  for  new  worlds  to  conquer ;  and 
lo,  when  he  lifted  his  eyes,  he  saw  Scotland  nod- 
ding in  the  arms  of  Presbyterianism.  Instantly  a 
frenzy  seized  him  to  clutch  it,  highland  and  low- 
land. As  was  usual  with  him,  this  frenzy  at  once 
assumed  the  garb  of  duty;  so  the  restless  prelate 
went  to  work.  Like  the  Jesuits,  he  never  scrupled 
as  to  means  when  the  end  was  to  his  liking.  So  one 
day  he  opened  the  matter  to  the  king,  and  then 
advised  him  to  visit  Scotland  on  pretext  of  being 
crowned  at  Edinburgh,  and  to  carry  with  him  a 
bevy  of  English  bishops,  that  the  coronation  cere- 
mony might  be  performed  according  to  the  Eng- 
lish ritual.t  To  be  sure,  this  was  unlawful,  since 
it  was  customary  for  the  Scottish  monarchs  to  be 
crowned  under  the  Presbyterian  code.  But  this 
did  not  trouble  the  elastic  consciences  of  the  king 

o  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  435-437. 

t  Hallam,  Con.  History.     Calderwood,  Hist.  Ch.  of  Scotland ; 

Noiile. 


276         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

and  the  prelate,  for  they  both  held  the  monarch  to 
be  irresponsible  and  enthroned  above  all  law. 

There  were  already  some  bishops  in  Scotland, 
and  these,  says  Calderwood,  "  were  become  so  aw- 
ful with  their  grandeur  and  the  king's  assistance, 
that  there  was  little  resistance,  howbeit  great  mur- 
muring and  malcontentment."* 

On  the  18th  of  June,  1633,  Charles  was  crowned 
with  much  pomp  at  Edinburgh,  "  the  ceremony  be- 
ing managed  by  his  favorite  bishop,  who  thrust 
away  the  bishop  of  Glasgow  from  his  proper  place 
in  the  pageant  because  he  appeared  without  the 
embroidered  habit  of  his  order,  which  he  scrupled 
to  wear,  as  he  was  a  moderate  churchman."t 

On  the  convocation  of  the  Scottish  parliament, 
the  king  assumed  the  tone  of  absolutism,  dancing 
in  this  scene  as  Laud  pulled  the  strings.  The 
Houses  were  overawed  and  dragooned  into  silence ; 
then  two  acts  were  declared  passed,  one  acknow- 
edging  the  royal  prerogative,  the  other  ratifying 
the  attempted  innovations  of  James  I.  AVhen  the 
affirmative  vote  on  these  bills  was  doubted,  the 
king  said  that  "  the  clerk's  declarations  must  stand, 
unless  any  one  would  go  to  the  bar  of  the  House, 
and  at  the  peril  of  his  hfe  accuse  that  underling  of 
falsifying  the  record  of  Parliament.''^ 

Both  Lords  and  Commons  on  the  adjournment 
complained  of  this  action  as  a  breach  of  their  priv- 
ilege, affii-ming  that  parliaments  were  an  absurd 

•  Calderwood,  p.  614.  f  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  454 

t  Ibid.,  pp.  454,  455.     Burnet's  Own  Times,  pp.  11,  12. 


LAUD'S  PRELACY. 


27  r 


il 


pageantry,  if  the  clerk  might  bend  the  vote,  like  a 
nose  of  wax,  which  way  he  pleased,  and  no  scrutiny 
be  allowed. 

Meantime  Charles,  angry  and  sore,  dissolved 
the  Scotch  Houses  as  he  had  the  English,  and 
quitted  the  country,  having  lost  caste  during  his 
brief  tarry  on  the  north  side  of  the  Tweed,  which 
proved  fatal  to  him  in  a  darker  hour.* 

But  Laud  had  been  partially  successful :  the 
introduction  of  the  English  liturgy  had  been  more 
than  mooted ;  a  new  bishopric  had  been  created  at 
Edinburgh  ;  and  his  majesty's  royal  chapel  in  that 
ancient  capital  had  been  supplied  with  a  service- 
book  framed  by  himself,  which  he  declared  to  be 
intended  as  a  pattern  for  all  cathedrals,  chapels, 
and  parish  churches  in  that  kingdom. t 

On  reaching  London  after  this  Scottish  raid,  the 
restless  and  ambitious  prelate  found  a  new  honor 
awaiting  him.  Archbishop  Abbot  was  just  dead, 
and  Laud  was  immediately  advanced  to  the  jDri- 
mate's  seat  in  the  see  of  Canterbury.  J  This  spur- 
red his  zeal  to  still  vaster  efforts ;  and  not  the  tiara 
of  the  pope,  nor  the  red  hat  of  a  cardinal,  but  the 
triumphal  crown  of  patriarch  of  three  kingdoms 
glittered  before  his  eyes  and  robbed  him  of  all 
rest. 

Laud  now  became  the  state.  Charles  reigned ; 
Laud  governed.  His  patronage  was  so  vast  that  his 
imprimatur  lifted  whom  he  chose  into  civil  or  eccle- 

•  Kebellions  in  Scotland,  1638-1660.     Calderwood,  Neale. 
t  Ibid.  %  Perry,  Neale,  Heylin. 


278         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

siastical  preferment.*  His  dependents  swarmed  in 
every  essential  office. t  On  his  nod,  complained  the 
Commons,  "  pulpits  prate  that  all  we  have  is  by  the 
king's  jure  divino ;  and  we  see  how  wiUing  time- 
servers  be  to  change  a  good  conscience  for  a  good 
bishopric"! 

The  whole  kingdom  was  now  overhauled.  In- 
novations proceeded  on  a  broader  scale.§  Nothing 
was  too  great,  nothing  was  too  small  for  the  Argus 
eyes  of  the  new  primate.  He  not  only  insisted  that 
all  Enghsh  merchants  resident  on  the  Continent 
should  employ  no  chaplains  but  such  as  used  the 
English  liturgy,  and  bullied  foreign  powers  into 
enforcing  this  arbitrary  dictum^  but  "he  pushed 
conformity  to  such  an  objectionable  strictness,  that 
the  Dutch  and  Huguenot  churches  settled  in  Eng- 
land were  bidden  to  choose  between  exile  and  the 
Establishment ;  and  this  notwithstanding  immunity 
of  worship  had  been  guaranteed  them  by  EHzabeth 
and  by  James  I.    If  this  did  not  actually  amount 

• 

to  treachery,  it  had  a  very  ugly  look  about  it ;  and 
the  wholesale  reduction  of  a  number  of  churches 
differing  in  confession  and  ritual  from  the  English 
church,  into  its  bosom,  merely  because  the  accident 
of  their  position  gave  the  state  power  over  them, 
was  a  stretch  likely  to  scandalize  even  the  well-dis- 
posed members  of  that  church."! 

o  Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  255.  f  Perry,  p.  452. 

X  Speech  of  Sir  F.  Seymour.     Eushworth,  vol.  1,  p.  499. 
§  See  Hume,  chap.  52,  a  large  portion  of  which  is  devoted  to 
this  subject.  ||  Eushworth,  vol.  2.     Heylin's  Laud,  p.  233. 

IT  Perry,  pp.  453,  454. 


LAUD'S  PBELACY. 


279 


All  England  began  to  grumble.  When  men  saw 
the  rigor  with  which  even  the  most  insignificant 
observances  were  pressed,  at  the  risk  of  civil  war, 
upon  the  refractory  nation,  they  began  to  think  that 
a  sane  bench  of  bishoj)s  would  never  manifest  such 
relentless  and  dangerous  zeal  without  some  momen- 
tous secret  purpose ;  and  the  Puritans  were  firmly 
persuaded  that  Laud's  scheme  was  to  lead  back  the 
English  by  gradual  steps  to  the  religion  of  theiy 
ancestors.*  "It  must  be  confessed,"  says  Hum^ 
"that,  though  Laud  deserved  not  the  appellation 
of  papist,  the  genius  of  his  novelties  was,  in  a  mod- 
ified degree,  the  genius  of  Eome :  the  same  profound 
respect  was  exacted  to  the  sacerdotal  character,  the 
same  submission  required  to  the  creeds  and  to  the 
decrees  of  synods  and  councils,  the  same  pomp  and 
ceremony  was  affected  in  worship,  and  the  same 
superstitious  regard  was  paid  to  days,  postures, 
meats,  and  vestments.  No  wonder  therefore  that 
this  prelate  was  everywhere  among  the  Puritans 
regarded  as  the  forerunner  of  antichrist."t 

The  result  of  this  was  momentously  evil.  The 
ghostly  masquerading  of  Laud's  puppet  priests  be- 
gan to  convulse  the  nation.  Honest  churchmen 
like  Hall,  sober  Puritanism,  and  the  constitutional 
party,  commenced  to  rally  the  national  conscience. 
England  protested.  Over  the  heads  of  the  game- 
sters the  heavens  grew  black ;  beneath  the  board 
on  which  they  threw  their  dice  heaved  the  volcano 
of  1640. 

*  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  218.  t  It)id.,  p.  219. 


278         HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

siastical  preferment.*  His  dependents  swarmed  in 
every  essential  office.t  On  his  nod,  complained  the 
Commons,  "  pulpits  prate  that  all  we  have  is  by  the 
king's  jure  divino ;  and  we  see  how  willing  time- 
servers  be  to  change  a  good  conscience  for  a  good 
bishopric.  "J 

The  whole  kingdom  was  now  overhauled.  In- 
novations proceeded  on  a  broader  scale.§  Nothing 
was  too  great,  nothing  was  too  small  for  the  Argus 
eyes  of  the  new  primate.  He  not  only  insisted  that 
all  EngHsh  merchants  resident  on  the  Continent 
should  employ  no  chaplains  but  such  as  used  the 
English  liturgy,  and  bullied  foreign  powers  into 
enforcing  this  arbitrary  didnm,l  but  "he  pushed 
conformity  to  such  an  objectionable  strictness,  that 
the  Dutch  and  Huguenot  churches  settled  in  Eng- 
land were  bidden  to  choose  between  exile  and  the 
Establishment ;  and  this  notwithstanding  immunity 
of  worship  had  been  guaranteed  them  by  EHzabeth 
and  by  James  I.  If  this  did  not  actually  amount 
to  treachery,  it  had  a  very  ugly  look  about  it ;  and 
the  wholesale  reduction  of  a  number  of  churches 
differing  in  confession  and  ritual  from  the  English 
church,  into  its  bosom,  merely  because  the  accident 
of  their  position  gave  the  state  power  over  them, 
was  a  stretch  likely  to  scandalize  even  the  well-dis- 
posed members  of  that  church."! 

o  Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  255.  f  Perr5%  p.  452. 

X  Speech  of  Sir  F.  Seymour.     Eushworth,  vol.  1,  p.  499. 
§  See  Hume,  chap.  52,  a  large  portion  of  which  is  devoted  to 
this  subject  ||  Rushworth,  vol.  2.     Heylin's  Laud,  p.  233. 

IT  Perry,  pp.  453,  454. 


LAUD'S  PEELACY. 


279 


All  England  began  to  grumble.  When  men  saw 
the  rigor  with  which  even  the  most  insignificant 
observances  were  pressed,  at  the  risk  of  civil  war, 
upon  the  refractory  nation,  they  began  to  think  that 
a  sane  bench  of  bishops  would  never  manifest  such 
relentless  and  dangerous  zeal  witliout  some  momen- 
tous secret  purpose ;  and  the  Puritans  were  firmly 
persuaded  that  Laud's  scheme  was  to  lead  back  the 
English  by  gradual  steps  to  the  religion  of  their 
ancestors.*  "It  must  be  confessed,"  says  Hume, 
"that,  though  Laud  deserved  not  the  appellation 
of  papist,  the  genius  of  his  novelties  was,  in  a  mod- 
ified degree,  the  genius  of  Kome :  the  same  profound 
respect  was  exacted  to  the  sacerdotal  character,  the 
same  submission  required  to  the  creeds  and  to  the 
decrees  of  synods  and  councils,  the  same  pomp  and 
ceremony  was  affected  in  worship,  and  the  same 
superstitious  regard  was  paid  to  days,  postures, 
meats,  and  vestments.  No  wonder  therefore  that 
this  prelate  was  everywhere  among  the  Puritans 
regarded  as  the  forerunner  of  antichrist.*'t 

The  result  of  this  was  momentously  evil.  The 
ghostly  masquerading  of  Laud's  puppet  priests  be- 
gan to  convulse  the  nation.  Honest  churchmen 
like  Hall,  sober  Puritanism,  and  the  constitutional 
party,  commenced  to  rally  the  national  conscience. 
England  protested.  Over  the  heads  of  the  game- 
sters the  heavens  grew  black ;  beneath  the  board 
on  which  they  threw  their  dice  heaved  the  volcano 
of  1640. 

*  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  218.  f  Ibid.,  p.  219. 


280        HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


CHAPTEK  XXI. 


THE  TEIUMPH  OF  THE  COURT. 

The  king's  campaign  against  the  ancient  liber- 
ties of  England  knew  no  cessation.  No  armistice 
was  ever  thought  of.  Officered  by  Strafford  and 
Laud,  the  court  swept  on  from  triumph  to  triumph. 
A  proclamation  was  issued  making  it  penal  to  speak 
of  assembling  another  Parliament.*  Taxes  were 
levied  on  the  sole  authority  of  the  royal  seal.t 
Tonnage  and  poundage  was  still  collected ;  and 
in  1634,  ship-money  was  levied  on  the  whole  king- 
dom. |  "  This  was  entirely  arbitrary ;  by  the  same 
right  any  other  tax  might  be  imposed. "§ 

It  was  against  this  despotic  act  that  John  Hamp- 
den, one  of  the  brightest  and  grandest  characters 
in  history,  the  Phocion  of  his  age,  fleshed  his  maid- 
en sword.  Hampden  owned  an  estate  in  Bucking- 
ham, on  wliich  he  was  rated  at  twenty  shillings  tax, 
the  money  to  go  towards  building  a  navy.  Con- 
vinced that  in  this  the  court  invaded  the  domain  of 
Parliament,  the  Bavard  of  the  Revolution  refused 
to  pay  his  assessment.  "  Ho  resolved,  rather  than 
submit  to  so  illegal  an  imposition,  to  stand  a  legal 
prosecution,  and  to  expose  himself  to  all  tlie  indig- 
nation of  the  court."!! 

«  Kushworth,  vol.  2,  p.  3 ;  Hume,  Clarendon.        f  ^^^' 
%  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  223,  and  on.  §  Ibid. 

11  Ibid.,  pp.  227,  228. 


TRIUMPH  OF  THE  COURT. 


281 


The  case  was  argued  during  twelve  days  in  the 
exchequer  chamber,  before  aU  the  judges  of  Eng- 
land; and  the  nation  regarded  with  the  utmost 
anxiety  every  circumstance  of  this  celebrated  trial. 
"  The  event  was  easily  foreseen ;  but  the  principles 
and  reasonings,  and  the  behavior  of  the  parties  en- 
gaged in  the  trial,  were  much  canvassed."  Hamp- 
den was  condemned  by  the  judicial  bench.*  But 
liberty,  though  in  chains,  knew  nothing  but  victo- 
ry. The  spirit  of  the  masses  was  raised  and  fired. 
Hampden's  name  and  fame  spread  though  the  isl- 
and. Even  the  partisans  of  the  court  scarce  ven- 
tured to  avow  the  legality  of  their  success.t  Every 
day  the  populace  grew  more  mihtant.  The  tyranny 
"  of  Charles  was,  if  not  the  most  cruel,  at  least  the 
most  nnjust  and  despotic  that  England  had  ever 
endured.  Without  being  able  to  allege,  for  excuse, 
any  public  necessity,  without  dazzling  the  people's 
minds  by  any  great  event — to  satisfy  obscure  wants, 
to  gratify  a  whim — he  misunderstood  and  trespass- 
ed on  the  ancient  rights,  and  opposed  the  present 
wishes  of  the  country,  setting  at  defiance  both  the 
laws  and  the  opinion  of  the  island ;  disregarding  his 
own  promises,  he  hazarded  once  and  again  every 
species  of  oppression,  adopting  the  most  violent 
resolutions,  the  most  illegal  measures;  and  all  this, 
not  to  secure  the  triumph  of  a  consistent  and  for- 
midable system,  but  to  maintain  by  daily  expedi- 
ents an  authority  never  free  from  embarrassment. 

*  state  Trials,  vol.  3,  col.  846-1254 
t  May,  Hist.  Long  Pari. ;  Guizot,  etc. 


282 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


Subtle  counsellors  were  for  ever  rummaging  among 
old  records  to  discover  a  precedent  for  some  for- 
gotten iniquity,  laboriously  digging  up  the  buried 
abuses  of  tlie  past,  and  erecting  tbem  into  the  rights 
of  the  crown.  Was  the  compliance  of  the  judges  at 
all  doubted?  The  exceptional  courts,  set  above 
the  common  law,  were  given  usurped  cognizance ; 
and  illegal  magistrates  became  the  accomplices  of 
tyranny,  when  the  legal  judges  refused  to  become 
its  abettors."* 

"  Whom  the  gods  would  destroy,  they  first  make 
mad."  The  court  never  paused  in  this  insane  tilt 
against  the  spirit  of  the  age.  Strafford  continued 
to  be  severely  insolent;  Laud  never  slacked  his 
hand.  "  The  archbishop,"  says  Hallam,  "  was  in- 
tolerant not  so  much  from  bigotry  as  from  system- 
atic policy  ;"t  but  he  was  "  more  ambitious  to  un- 
dertake than  politic  to  carry  on."J 

The  kingdom  had  long  swarmed  with  pamphlets 
against  the  indecencies  of  the  court  and  against  the 
biting  tyranny  of  Laud.  Severe  repressive  meas- 
ures had  been  taken.  Still  men  wrote ;  and  print- 
ers, tempted  by  the  enormous  profits  sure  to  be 
made  on  the  interdicted  works,  smuggled  these 
obnoxious  satires  through  the  press.  Tracts  were 
scattered  in  the  streets  of  every  town  and  county 
hamlet ;  thousands  were  imported  from  Holland.§ 

•  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  71. 
t  Hallam,  Cons.  Hist.,  vol.  1,  p.  450. 
t  May,  Hist.  Long  Pari.,  p.  19. 
§  state  Trials,  vol.  3,  col.  711. 


TRIUMPH  OF  THE  COURT. 


283 


* 


One  day — it  was  about  the  time  of  Hampden's 
trial — the  royal  council  seized  three  of  these  offend- 
ers, Prynne,  a  lawyer.  Barton,  a  theologian,  and 
Bostwick,  a  physician.  They  were  tried  in  the  Star- 
chamber.  Laud  wished  to  have  them  indicted  for 
high  treason ;  but  when  told  that  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  strain  the  law  so  as  to  convict  them  on 
that  charge,  it  was  decided  to  arraign  them  for  fel- 
ony.* 

Trial,  in  Anglo-Saxon  dialect,  has  a  proud  his- 
toric meaning.  It  includes  indictment  by  impartial 
peers;  a  copy  of  such  indictment,  and  a  list  of  wit- 
nesses furnished  the  prisoner,  with  ample  time  to 
scrutinize  both ;  Hberty  to  choose,  and  time  to  get 
counsel ;  mens  sana  in  corpore  sano,  to  arrange  a  de- 
fence ;  and  a  judge  and  jury  impartial  as  the  lot  of 
humanity  will  allow:  honored  bulwarks  and  safe- 
guards, each  one  the  trophy  and  result  of  a  centu- 
ry's struggle.t 

But  now  the  accused  were  bidden  to  make  an 
immediate  defence ;  pen,  ink,  and  paper  were  de- 
nied them  ;  they  were  told  that  their  pleadings  must  . 
be  signed  by  a  counsellor,  yet  all  access  to  their 
prison  was  barred  for  several  days;  when  a  law- 
yer was  admitted,  he  refused  to  sign  their  papers 
through  fear  of  compromising  himself  with  the 
court ;  on  requesting  permission  to  write  out  and 
sign  their  own  justification,  they  were  denied  the 
right,  and  told  that  unless  a  counsellor  subscribed 

•  State  Trials,  vol.  3,  col.  711. 

t  Phillips,  Speeches,  Lectures,  etc.,  p.  286,  Boston,  1863. 


284 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


it,  they  would  be  sentenced  as  self- convicted  crim- 
inals. "  Your  lordships,"  said  Prynne,  "  ask  for 
an  impossibiHty ;  fear  of  your  displeasure  ties  all 
hands."  The  court,  unmoved  and  implacable,  reit- 
erated its  declaration.  Unable  to  comply,  these 
English  freemen,  guilty  of  expressing  their  opin- 
ions through  the  press,  were  condemned  to  the  pil- 
lory, to  lose  their  ears,  to  pay  a  fine  of  five  thou- 
sand pounds,  and  to  perpetual  imprisonment.* 

When  the  day  appointed  for  the  execution  of  the 
sentence  came,  an  immense  crowd  assembled.  The 
executioner  was  ordering  them  away.  "Let  them 
remain,"  said  Barton  ;  "  they  must  learn  to  suffer." 
The  official  did  not  insist,  so  the  people  remained. 
"My  dear  sir,"  said  a  woman  to  Barton,  "this  is 
the  best  sermon  you  ever  preached."  "  I  hope  so," 
he  answered ;  "  and  may  God  convert  the  hearers." 
One  young  man  turned  pale  as  he  looked  on.  "My 
son,"  queried  Barton,  "why  are  you  so  pale?  my 
heart  is  not  weak ;  and  if  I  needed  more  strength, 
God  would  not  let  me  want  it."  The  crowd  drew 
nearer  and  nearer.  Some  one  gave  Bostwick  a 
bunch  of  flowers;  a  bee  lighted  on  it.  "See  this 
poor  Httle  bee,"  said  he ;  "  even  on  the  pillory  it 
comes  and  sips  honey  from  the  flowers ;  and  why 
should  not  I  enjoy  here  the  honey  of  Jesus  Christ  ?" 

"  Christians,"  cried  Prynne,  "  if  we  had  prized 
our  liberty  we  should  not  be  here ;  it  is  for  the  free- 
dom of  you  all  that  we  have  exposed  our  own  :  keep 
it  well,  I  implore  you ;  remain  firm ;  be  true  to  God 

•  State  Trials,  vol.  3,  col.  711-717. 


TRIUMPH  OF  THE  COURT. 


285 


ll 


and  dear  England ;  or  else  you  and  your  children 
will  fall  into  eternal  servitude."  The  air  rang  with 
acclamations.* 

The  victims  of  this  outrage,  and  of  similar  bar- 
barities, were  yeomen,  with  no  especial  talents  to 
distinguish  them,  but  filled  and  dignified  by  that 
faith  which  can  move  mountains ;  and  they  were 
now,  by  the  folly  of  the  government,  clothed  with 
the  persuasive  attributes  of  martyrdom.  Nothing 
pleads  so  eloquently  as  suffering  incurred  for  an 
idea.  Many  an  insignificant  idea  has  been  perse- 
cuted into  world-wide  fame  and  influence ;  there  is 
no  instance  of  a  truth  harried  into  the  grave. 

Aside  then  from  its  wickedness,  this  crusade  was 
an  evidence  of  madness  which  should  have  hastiled 
its  chiefs ;  for  imprisonment  is  the  strait-jacket  of 
the  morally  insane. 

It  was  in  these  times  the  distinguishing  mark  of 
a  Puritan,  to  see  him  going  to  church  twice  a  day 
on  Sunday  ft"  and  in  those  districts  where  Puritan- 
ism predominated,  the  mere  force  of  opinion  kept 
down  the  legal  recreations  permitted  on  that  day. 
Laud  perceiving  this,  moved  the  king  to  pubHsh 
still  another  declaration,  encouraging  those  sports 
which  sober,  devout  Puritanism  eschewed.  This 
Charles  did;  whereon  the  justices  of  the  peace 
signed  a  petition  in  which  they  declared  that  these 
revels  had  not  only  introduced  great  profanation  of 
the  Sabbath,  but  riotous  tippling,  contempt  of  au- 
thority, quarrels,  and  murders  ;  and  they  therefore 

♦  Guizot,  vol.  1,  pp.  101,  102.  t  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  313. 


286 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


prayed  tliat  Sunday  recreations  might  be  suppress- 
ed as  prejudicial  to  peace,  sobriety,  piety,  and  good 
government.  To  this  the  bishops  were  vehemently 
opposed,  maintaining  that  the  sports  civilized  their 
parishioners,  and  brought  them  more  willingly  to 
church.* 

Singularly  enough,  we  here  observe  the  laity 
petitioning  for  the  religious  observance  of  the  Sab- 
bath, and  the  clergy  pleading  for  its  profanation. 

The  king  sided  with  his  primate,  and  a  contro- 
versy which  had  slept  for  many  years  was  now  re- 
vived, and  lent  its  voice  to  swell  the  general  chorus 
of  debate.t 

Laud's  presumption  knew  no  bounds.  He  had 
long  been  accustomed  to  alter  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  on  his  own  authority  ;J  now  he  assumed  to 
fetch  the  business  of  Westminster  HaU  into  the 
ecclesiastical  courts ;  he  held  these  courts  in  their 
own  names,  instead  of,  as  before,  in  that  of  the  king ; 
he  enlarged  his  own  jurisdiction  by  claiming  the 
right  to  visit  the  universities  of  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge jure  metropolitico  ;  and  he  incurred  the  pen- 
alty of  a  prcemunire  by  framing  new  articles  of  vis- 
itation, to  which  the  episcopal  seal  was  alone  af- 
fixed.§ 

If  any  within  or  without  the  church  ventured  to 
complain  of  these  usurpations,  deprivation  gagged 
them,  the  courts  of  exception  sentenced  them,  the 

*  Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  460 ;  Perry,  Harris.  f  Ibid. 

X  Lathbury,  Book  of  Common  Prayer  ;  Perry,  Guizot. 
§  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  482,  483 ;  Guizot,  Hume. 


TRIUMPH  OF  THE  COURT. 


287 


pillory  received  them,  and  remorseless  persecution 
dogged  them  ever  after.* 

Now  again  the  Puritans  began  to  quit  the  island. 
"  The  emigration  was  so  rapid,"  says  Perry,  "  that 
men  whose  views  were  far  from  Puritanical  com- 
menced to  suspect  that  the  gospel  was  passing  west- 
ward :  and  about  this  time  the  devout  Herbert  wrote 
that  much-noted  couplet, 

" 'Religion  stands  a  tiptoe  in  the  land, 
Ready  to  pass  to  the  American  strand.'  "f 

The  court  was  alarmed  ;  the  king  vetoed  further 
emigration. t  Conscientious  men  might  no  longer 
live  honestly  at  home  nor  find  peace  in  exile. 

But  liberty  owes  Charles  I.  its  hearty  thanks  for 
this  despotic  act ;  for  at  that  very  time  eight  ves- 
sels lay  anchored  in  the  Thames,  ready  to  sail  for 
the  New  World ;  and  on  board  of  one  of  these  were 
Hazlerig,  Pym,  Hampden,  and  Cromwell,§  the  illus- 
trious quartette  of  the  Eevolution. 

History  pauses  and  smiles  grimly  at  this  fact, 
and  wonders  whether  the  fated  king  would  have 
shackled  emigration  if  he  had  foreseen  the  ghastly 
future ;  and  she  asks  herself,  "  How  should  I  have 
writ  the  record,  had  these  men  quitted  England  ?" 

In  order  that  he  might  be  able  to  devote  him- 
self wholly  to  the  coercion  of  his  subjects,  Charles 
had  recently  solicited   a  peace   with   Spain   and 

*  Neale,  vol.  1,  pp.  482,  483 ;  Guizot,  Hume. 
f  Perry,  p.  438.  |  Rushworth,  part  2,  vol.  1,  p.  409. 

§  Neale,  vol.  1,  chap.  3.    Reign  of  Charles  I.    Walpole,  Cata- 
logue of  Royal  and  Noble  Authors,  vol.  1,  p.  206. 


288 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


France.  This  lie  procured  from  the  house  of  Aus- 
tria by  disgraceful  concessions,  and  from  Eichelieu 
by  abandoning  those  whom  he  had  inveigled  into 
the  war,  and  submitting  to  terms  which  the  haughty 
cardinal  dictated.* 

"  After  such  ill-conduct  and  disgrace,"  remarks 
one  of  the  unhappy  monarch's  biographers, "  we  may 
well  imagine  that  England  was  not  much  dreaded 
by  its  neighbors.  This  the  king  soon  found ;  for 
the  neutrality  of  his  ports  was  violated  both  by  the 
Spaniards  and  the  Dutch ;  his  subjects  were  insult- 
ed and  wronged  by  them  and  by  the  French ;  nor 
did  he  ever  receive  any  satisfaction  for  the  affront 
put  on  him  by  the  Dutch  admiral  in  destroying  the 
fleet  of  Spain  in  his  harbor,  contrary  to  his  express 
command.  Indeed  the  reputation  of  Britain  had 
suffered  so  terribly,  that  pirates  of  all  the  neigh- 
boring nations  took  the  liberty  to  infest  the  narrow 
seas ;  and  the  ships  and  coasts  of  the  island  were 
exposed  to  the  rapine  and  barbarity  of  the  Turk 
himself,  who  carried  numbers  into  captivity.  So 
feeble  was  the  government,  or  so  careless  of  the 
welfare  of  the  people.t 

Charles  employed  the  leisure  which  he  had  pur- 
chased by  disgrace  in  a  bhnd  attempt  to  coerce 
Scotland  into  exact  conformity  with  the  English 
ritual.  What  his  father  had  wished  for  the  sake 
of  poHty,  he  deemed  indispensable  on  grounds  of 

*  Sidney's  State  Papers,  vol.  2,  p.  612.     D'Estrade,  Letters  and 
Negotiations,  p.  29,  8vo,  London,  1755. 

t  Harris,  Life  and  Writings  of  Charles  1.,  vol.  2,  pp.  162-180. 


TKIUMPH  OF  THE  COUBT. 


289 


conscience.  James  had  invaded  Scotland  with  the 
power  of  a  prince ;  Charles  directed  against  it  the 
implacable  fury  of  a  zealot.*  In  the  execution  of 
this  design,  fraud,  violence,  threats,  corruption,  ev- 
ery thing  had  been  pressed.  Despotism  had  even 
shown  itself  patient  and  supple ;  sometimes  ad- 
dressing itself  to  ecclesiastical  ambition,  sometimes 
to  the  interests  of  the  small  landed  proprietors, 
offering  to  one  high  church  dignities  and  honorable 
offices  in  the  state,  and  to  the  others  an  easy  re- 
demption of  their  tithes ;  always  advancing  tow- 
ards its  goal,  yet  with  cautious,  slow,  and  subtle 

steps.t 

Much  had  been  already  gained.  The  bishops  had 
recovered  their  jurisdiction ;  new  bishoprics  were 
constantly  created,  and  in  these  Laud  installed  his 
dependents.  "  One  Forbes,"  says  Burnet,  "  was  made 
diocesan  of  the  new  bishopric  at  Edinburgh.  His 
way  of  life  and  devotion  was  thought  monastic,  and 
his  learning  lay  in  antiquity ;  he  studied  to  be  a  rec- 
onciler between  Papist  and  Protestant,  and  he  lean- 
ed rather  towards  Rome,  as  appears  by  his  Consid- 
er ationes  3Iodestoe.''X  The  archbishop  of  St.  An- 
drew's held  the  great  seal  of  Scotland.§  The  bish- 
op of  Boss  v\^as  made  high-treasurer. Il  Out  of  four- 
teen prelates,  nine  had  seats  in  the  Privy-council, 
which  they  ruled. If     The  service-book  was  already 


*  Chambers,  Rebellions  in  Scotland,  1638-1666,  vol.  1,  p.  55. 
t  Guizot,  vol.  1,  pp.  107,  108. 

J  Burnet's  Own  Times,  p.  12.  §  Spottiswood. 

II  Harwell,  Guizot.  IF  Clarendon,  vol.  1,  pp.  148-150. 

13 


ParltKUS. 


290 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PUBITANS. 


in  use  by  the  Scottish  churchmen.  Charles  and 
Laud  thought  that  the  auspicious  moment  had 
come  for  completing  their  crafty  work  by  imposing 
this  nucleus  church,  with  new  canons  and  a  Liturgy 
conformable  to  the  English  discipline,  at  once  upon 
Scotland  at  large,  without  consulting  either  the 
Presbyterian  clergy  or  the  people.* 

In  1636  the  Book  of  Canons  was  promulgated. 
By  it  the  whole  system  of  Presbyterian  church- 
government  was  at  once  laid  prostrate.f  But  it  was 
acquiesced  in  with  a  quietude  ominous  of  an  ap- 
proaching storm.  This  was  the  herald  of  the  ser- 
vice-book, which  made  its  appearance  some  months 
later,  prefaced  by  a  charge  from  the  king,  in  which 
all  who  rejected  the  innovating  ritual  were  branded 
as  rebels.^ 

The  Scottish  Liturgy  was  not  totidem  verbis  the 
same  as  the  English  ;  but  though  differing  in  some 
respects,  it  was  the  same  in  scope.§  The  altera- 
tions were  of  two  kinds :  those  intended  to  ingratiate 
the  book,  and  those  whose  tendency  was  to  make  it 
distastefuU  Laud  added  some  things  to  the  Scotch 
ritual  which  he  intended  eventually  to  graft  into 
the  English  Prayer-book;  it  being  thought  best, 
when  making  an  alteration,  to  go  at  once  to  the 
full  extent  of  what  was  intended  to  be  the  final 
creed  of  the  twin  kingdoms. 

♦  Guizot,  vol.  1,  pp.  108, 109 ;  Malcom ;  Laing,  Hist.  Scotland, 
vol.  3.  t  Chambers,  vol.  1,  p.  68  ;  Calderwood. 

}  Ibid.    Hume,  vol.  2. 
§  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  396.  ||  Ibid. 


TRIUMPH  OF  THE  COURT. 


291 


\ 


But   "the   church   of  Scotland,"    says   Fuller, 
"  claimed  not  only  to  be  independent  and  free  as 
any  church  in  Christendom— a  sister,  not  a  daugh- 
ter, of  England— but  also  had  so  high  an  opinion  of 
its  purity,  that  it  participated  more  of  Moses'  plat- 
form on  the  mount  than  other  congregations,  being 
a  reformed  reformation ;  whose  practice  might  be 
directing  to  others,  and  she  sit  to  give,  not  take- 
write,  not  receive,  copies  from  other  churches ;  she 
desiring  that  all  others  were  like  unto  her,  save 
only  in  her  afflictions."* 

With  trifling  exceptions  therefore,  such  as  the 
Komanist  noblemen  and  a  portion  of  the  northern 
Highlands,  the  whole  inhabitants  of  Scotland,  of 
whatever  rank,  may  be  described  as  at  this  time 
banded  in  one  common  cause  against  the  forms 
which  Charles  was  inaugurating.     The  people  for 
conscience'  sake— for  to  their  untutored  conception 
the  whole  ritual  was  a  Papist  rubric— and  the  high- 
er classes  from  motives  of  interest ;  all  were  ahke 
leagued  in  opposition  to  the  innovations.     The  very 
officers  of  the  state  were  not  true  to  the  service  of 
their  master,  and  Scotch  Episcopacy  itself  entered 
into  the  feelings  of  the  nation,  if  not  with  ostenta- 
tious activity,  at  least  with  secret  good  will.f 

The  Scotch,  like  their  Puritan  brothers  of  the 
south,  had  a  horror  of  any  thing  which  smacked  of 
Eome;  and  since  they  were  ruder  and  more  unlet- 
tered than  the  Puritans,  they  carried  their  hatred 

•  Fuller,  voL  3,  pp.  399,  400. 
t  Chambers,  vol.  1,  p.  61. 


292         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

to  a  higher  degree.*  To  them,  whatever  differed 
with  their  own  simple  discipline  seemed  surcharged 
with  idolatry.  It  can  easily  be  conceived  then  what 
an  effect  the  pomp  of  Laud's  prelacy  was  sure  to 
have. 

The  king  had  commanded  every  clergyman 
throughout  Scotland  to  buy  two  copies  of  the  Ser- 
vice-book for  the  use  of  his  parish ;  and  the  new 
ritual  was  to  be  introduced  at  Edinburgh  on  the 
approaching  Easter ;  but  the  time  was  changed,  so 
that  the  ceremony  did  not  occur  until  Sunday,  the 
23d  of  July,  1637.t 

On  that  day,  in  the  midst  of  the  service,  the  ca- 
thedral church  of  Edinburgh  was  mobbed,  missiles 
were  hurled  at  the  officiating  clergy,  and  the  mili- 
tary were  called  in  to  clear  the  aisles,  t  "  One  old 
woman,  who  had  endeavored  to  go  out  with  the  rest 
of  the  ejected  Non-conformists,  but  without  suc- 
ceeding, took  up  her  station  in  a  remote  corner  of 
the  cathedral,  where,  opening  her  Bible,  she  endeav- 
ored to  shut  out  from  her  ears  the  sounds  of  the 
detested  service-book  which  the  bishop  had  recom- 
menced intoning.  As  she  was  engaged  in  reading 
the  sacred  pages,  a  young  man  who  sat  behind  her 
happened  to  pronounce  the  word  Amen  so  audibly 
at  the  close  of  one  of  the  prayers  as  to  disturb  her 
devotions.  Quite  enraged  at  the  near  presence  of 
what  she  esteemed  so  vile  an  abomination,  she  start- 

♦  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  231. 

f  Burnet's  Own  Times,  Spottiswood,  Clarendon. 

I  Chambers,  yoj,  1,  p.  64 ;  Harris,  Perry. 


TRIUMPH  OF  THE  COURT. 


293 


I 


ed  from  her  seat,  gave  the  astounded  offender  a 
severe  blow  on  the  cheek,  and  thundered  in  his  ears, 
'Fause  thief,  is  there  nae  ither  part  o'  the  kirk 
where  ye  may  say  your  mass,  but  ye  maun  say 't  at 
my  lug?'  The  young  man,  says  the  pamphleteer 
who  tells  the  story,  being  dashed  with  such  an 
unexpected  rencontre,  lapsed  into  pensive  silence 
as  a  token  of  his  recantation."* 

In  the  streets  wild  uproar  reigned :  and  when 
the  congregation  was  dismissed  from  the  cathedral, 
the  innovating  churchmen  were  hooted  and  pelted, 
amid  the  cheers  of  the  rioters.f 

This  Edinburgh  mob,  from  which  the  better 
classes  stood  aloof,  was  at  once  a  warning  and  a 
prophecy.  But  the  crazy  court  heeded  neither. 
The  remonstrances  of  the  Scotch  were  met  by  a 
proclamation  to  enforce  the  ritual.J  Then  high- 
land and  lowland  began  to  heave  in  insurrection. 
The  people  loved  their  king,  but  they  adored  their 
religion.  Kesistance  at  once  organized  itself;  with 
a  fine  instinct,  Scotland  recognized  the  fact  that 
regulated  liberty  quadruples  all  social  forces.  Four 
ta^jles  were  formed  at  Edinburgh ;  the  nobility,  the 
gentry,  the  ministry,  and  the  burgesses  had  each 
one ;  and  into  their  hands  the  whole  authority  was 
confided.§  This  unique  government,  the  offspring 
of  an  excited  moment,  worked  as  regularly  and  as 

•  Chambers,  vol.  1,  p.  65.  t  Ibid. 

X  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  233 ;  Hallam,  Chambers,  Clarendon. 
§  Hume,  volume  2,  page  233 ;  Calderwood,  Clarendon,  Rush* 
worth. 


294 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


orderly  as  it  could  had  it  been  grouted  in  the  hab- 
its of  a  dozen  centuries.* 

The  English  court  witnessed  these  movements 
aghast.  The  king  began  to  temporize.  Negotia- 
tions ensued ;  but  both  sides  were  sour  and  suspi- 
cious, and  diplomacy  proved  abortive.t  Then  war 
was  resolved  on.  "  These  hounds,"  said  Strafford, 
"  must  be  whipped  back  to  common-sense." J 

On  their  part,  the  Scotch  remembered  Bannock- 
burn,  and  took  heart.  They  "  trusted  in  God  and 
their  good  right."  Thousands  rushed  to  Edin- 
burgh. The  famous  Covenant  was  signed  by  which 
Popery  was  renounced ;  and  all  its  subscribers  were 
linked  in  a  union  to  resist  all  innovations  in  relig- 
ion, and  to  defend  each  other  from  all  attacks  what- 
soever.§ 

"  The  people,  without  distinction  of  rank  or  con- 
dition, age  or  sex,  flocked  to  the  subscription  of  this 
paper ;  few  disapproved  of  it,  and  still  fewer  dared 
openly  condemn  it.  The  king's  ministers  and  coun- 
sellors were  themselves  seized  by  the  general  con- 
tagion ;  and  none  but  rebels  to  God  and  traitors  to 
their  country,  it  was  thought,  could  withdraw  them- 
selves from  so  salutary  and  so  pious  a  combina- 
tion."|| 

In  England  also  chaos  seemed  come  again.  In 
the  cause  of  the  Scotch  the  Puritans  plainly  saw 

*  Hume.  f  Chambers,  vol.  1,  pp.  72-128. 

X  Strafford's  Letters,  vol.  2,  pp.  138,  156. 

§  Chambers,  Hume,  Clarendon,  Perry,  Carlyle. 

i  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  233. 


TRIUMPH  OF  THE  COURT. 


295 


their  own.*  A  secret  correspondence  between  the 
northern  and  the  southern  Non-conformists  was 
speedily  established  ;t  the  cold  disHke  of  ages,  the 
mutual  contempt  of  Scot  and  Enghshman,  was 
melted  into  hearty  brotherhood  and  cordial  coop- 
eration by  the  persuasive  eloquence  of  a  common 
danger  and  a  common  creed. 

"  Many,"  affirms  Burnet,  "  who  stoutly  adhered 
in  the  sequel  to  the  king's  cause,  were  then  much 
troubled  by  the  whole  conduct  of  affairs,  as  being 
neither  wise,  legal,  nor  just ;  and  the  violence  with 
which  Scotland  did  engage  against  the  court  may 
easily  convince  men  that  the  provocation  must  have 
been  very  great  to  draw  that  loyal  nation  into  such 
entire  and  vehement  revolt. "J 

But  the  king,  like  Strafford  and  like  Laud,  loved 
high,  rough  measures,  though  he  had  neither  the 
skill  to  juggle  success,  nor  the  genius  to  command 
it  in  iinchx)utre  government.§  His  improvident  folly 
was  never  more  clearly  shown  than  through  these 
early  scenes  which  formed  the  prologue  to  the  fierce 
tragedy  of  civil  war.  The  court  had  coldly,  sys- 
tematically provoked  a  war  by  attempting  to  revo- 
lutionize the  polity  of  a  proud,  honest,  irascible  peo- 
ple ;  and  when  war  came,  England  stood  in  undis- 
guised sympathy  with  the  insurgents;  while  the 
court,  without  money,  without  troops,  without  co- 
operation, gazed  with  stUpid  despair   across  the 


*  May,  Hist.  Long  Pari.,  vol.  1,  p.  96. 
J  Burnet's  Own  Times,  p.  15. 
§  Ibid.,  p.  17. 


t  Ibid. 


296        HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS 

Tweed,  and  attempted  to  chatter  down  the  angrj, 
armed  etneiite. 

Charles  begged,  borrowed,  and  stole  from  Jew 
and  Gentile ;  but  still  the  greedy  maw  of  his  ex- 
penses hungered  for  money.  The  little  army  which 
he  had  put  in  the  field  had  no  heart  to  fight  in  a 
cause  which  every  one  decried.  In  the  hope  that 
his  presence  would  inspire  enthusiasm,  the  king 
went  to  head  the  troops;  and  in  the  spirit  of  feudal- 
ism, he  summoned  his  nobility  to  a  rendezvous  at 
York.*  He  thought  this  silly  pageant  would  par- 
alyze the  armed  bands  of  the  Scots. 

But  this  tournament  of  carpet-knights  was 
disordered  by  intrigue,  and  it  reeled  in  drunken- 
license.t  The  army  fraternized  with  the  foe.J 
Kichelieu  fomented  discord.§  The  Dutch  jeered 
from  the  Netherlands.  The  Spaniard  ravaged  the 
narrow  seas.  The  rebeUious  Scotch  hung  triumph- 
ant upon  the  border.!  Beneath  the  thin  film  of  the 
court  stood  sullen  discontent,  arming  itself  at  home. 
Frightened,  broken,  bankrupt,  in  despair,  Charles 
hastened  back  to  London ;  and  astounded  England 
heard  one  day  that  the  bewildered  king  had  been 
driven  to  the  dernier  resort  of  another  Parliament.! 

•  Clarendon,  vol.  2,  p.  281 ;  May,  Bnmet. 
t  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  119 ;  Kushworth. 
•iiT^^^"^''"^'  Memorials,  etc.,  p.  31.     Clarendon,  vol.  1,  pp. 

II  Burnet's  Own  Times ;  Hume. 

IT  May,  Hist.  Long  Pari.     Pari.  Hist.,  vol.  2. 


THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 


297 


CHAPTEE   XXII. 

THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 

In  April,  1640,  after  an  intermission  of  twelve 
years,*  Parliament,  assembled  by  the  force  of 
events,  met  once  more  at  Westminster  Hall.  Its 
temper  was  gentle,  but  firm — suaviter  in  modo^for- 
titer  in  re:\  Long  banishment  from  their  seats  had 
neither  quenched  the  hopes  nor  quelled  the  spirits 
of  the  national  representatives.  With  almost  laugh- 
able pertinacity,  the  lower  house,  after  transact- 
ing the  necessary  routine  business,  proceeded  at 
once  to  reappoint  the  old  obnoxious  committees 
on  religion  and  grievances  \X  after  which  they  in- 
vited the  Lords  to  unite  with  them  in  a  fast,  "  be- 
cause the  best  way  to  attain  unto  a  happy  conclu- 
sion in  "public  affairs  was  to  beg  the  Divine  assist- 
ance and  direction  by  solemn  humiliation."§ 

The  court  looked  on  with  anxious  attention; 
and  Laud  made  a  bold  effort  to  neutralize  the  com- 
mittees by  proposing  that  they  be  formed  of  an 
equal  number  of  clergy  from  the  convocation,  and 
Commons  from  the  House,  an  innovation  that  found 
no  favor.lj     Then  Charles,  angry  at  this  rebuff,  and 

*  The  last  parliament  had  met  in  1628.     See  chap.  19,  p.  265, 
Beq.  t  Perry,  p.  598.     Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  126. 

X  Rushworth,  vol.  3,  p.  1133.     Clarendon,  vol.  1,  p.  227. 
§  Ibid. 
II  Pari.  Hist,  vol.  2,  col.  560.    Heylin,  Life  of  Laud,  p.  422. 

13* 


298 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


impatient  for  subsidies,  laid  the  Scotcli  war  before 
the  Commons,  pleaded  his  necessities,  and  demand- 
ed a  vote  of  money  before  listening  to  the  debate 
on  grievances,*  which  revived  the  precise  state  of 
affairs  during  the  former  parliament. 

This  point  the  wily  Commons  would  not  yield. 
Their  only  hold  upon  the  king  was  through  his 
empty  exchequer;  they  could  not  trust  his  oft- 
broken  promises;  Ids  wants  supplied,  they  feared 
that  theirs  would  go  begging. 

So  the  debate  on  grievances  commenced.  One 
member  presented  a  petition  from  his  constituents, 
complaining  of  the  collection  of  ship-money,  of  ille- 
gal projects  and  monopoHes,  and  of  the  Star-cham- 
ber and  High  Commission  courts. t  Another  affirm- 
ed that  "the  commonwealth  had  been  miserably 
massacred,  that  all  property  and  Hberty  was  shaken, 
that  the  church  was  distracted  and  its  professors 
persecuted.":):  A  third,  Sir  Benjamin  Eoidyard,  the 
most  eloquent  orator  then  in  the  House,  and  a  good 
friend  to  the  Establishment,§  denounced  the  "many 
disorders  that  had  been  committed,  by  innovations 
in  religion,  violations  of  fundamental  laws,  and  in- 
trusions upon  liberty.*! 

Then  Pym  spoke.  He  denounced  the  illegal 
taxes,  declaimed  against  the  departures  from  the 
Constitution,  inveighed  against  the  encouragement 


•  Pari.  Hist.,  vol.  2,  col.  560. 

t  Kushworth,  vol.  3,  p.  1129. 

§  Ibid. 

il  Clarendon,  vol.  1,  p.  54.     Rushworth,  vol.  3,  p.  1144. 


THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 


299 


X  Ibid.,  p.  1130. 


of  popery  and  those  "  innovations  in  religion  which 
were  calculated  to  translate  Canterbury  into  Eome," 
and  in  an  able,  temperate  speech,  used  these  words : 
"  Popish  books  published  and  used,  the  introduc- 
tion of  popish  ceremonies,  as  altars,  bowing  towards 
the  east,  pictures,  crucifixes,  and  the  like,  which  of 
themselves  are  so  many  dry  bones,  when  put  to- 
gether, make  the  man.  We  are  not  now  content 
with  the  old  ceremonies — I  mean  such  as  the  con- 
stitution of  the  reformed  church  hath  continued 
unto  us — but  we  must  introduce  again  many  of 
those  superstitious  and  infirm  ceremonies  which 
accompanied  the  most  decrepid  age  of  popery."* 

The  Commons  had  thus  far  ignored  the  Scottish 
war ;  indeed  nothing  but  respect  for  the  king  re- 
strained them  from  crying  "  Amen  "  to  it.t 

After  no  little  parliamentary  skirmishing,  dur- 
ing which  the  two  Houses  collided,  the  king  offered 
to  give  up  his  right  to  collect  ship-money  if  the 
Commons  would  vote  him  twelve  subsidies.  J  That 
amount  was  deemed  exorbitant.  "  Then  it  is  use- 
less to  deliberate,"  said  Sir  Henry  Vane,  "since  the 
king  will  accept  no  other  terms."  The  House  was 
provoked ;  Charles  was  no  less  angry ;  and  in  an 
ill-starred  moment  he  dissolved  this  Parliament,  as 
he  had  all  former  ones.§ 

The  country  heard  this  news  with  astonishment. 
The  wiser  friends  of  the  court  trembled.     The  lib- 

o  Eusbworth,  vol.  3,  p.  1133.  t  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  126. 

X  Eusbworth,  vol.  3,  p.  1134.     Pari.  Hist.,  col.  563. 
§  Pari.  Hist.,  col.  563.     Strafford's  Letters. 


300         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS 

eral  party  rejoiced ;  this  last  blunder  in  the  game 
insured  the  king's  checkmate.  "What  disturbs 
you?"  queried  St.  John,  the  friend  of  Hampden 
and  a  popular  leader  in  the  House,  when  he  met 
Clarendon  a  few  hours  after  the  dissolution  of  the 
Parliament.  "  That  which  disturbs  more  than  one 
honest  person,"  answered  the  courtier,  "the  impru- 
dent prorogation  of  the  Commons,  who  alone  can 
remedy  the  present  disorders."  "Ah,  w^ell,"  said 
St.  John,  "before  things  grow  better  they  must 
grow  worse ;  this  Parliament  would  never  have 
applied  the  fitting  remedy."* 

This  last  action  of  the  court  had  outraged  pub- 
lic opinion.     "The  people  w^ere  indignant  at  seeing 
their  rights,  their  creed,  their  persons,  their  pos- 
sessions, surrendered  to  the  irresponsible  will  of 
the  king  and  his  council,  while  their  ancestors  had 
of  old  made  war  on  and  dictated  laws  to  the  sover- 
eign.    No  philosophical  theory,  no  learned  distinc- 
tion between  royalty  and  democracy  occupied  their 
thought :  the  House  of  Commons  engrossed  their 
whole  attention,  as  representing  the  normal  forces 
of  the  state — the  ancient  coalition  of  the  barons,  as 
well  as  the  nation  at  large :  the  Commons  alone 
had  of  late  defended  the  public  hberties ;  it  alone- 
was  esteemed  capable  of  redeeming  them.     It  was 
the  lower  house  that  was  meant  when  Parliament 
was  mentioned ;  and  the  lawfulness  as  well  as  the 
necessity  of  its  political   omnipotence  became   a 
maxim,  and  established  itself  in  every  mind."t 

»  Clarendon,  vol.  1,  p.  240.        f  Guizot,  vol.  1,  pp.  90,  91. 


THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 


301 


As  regarded  the  church,  the  middle  classes  were 
largely  Puritan ;  but  very  many  of  the  country  gen- 
tlemen had  no  systematic  views  either  as  respected 
its  form  or  government ;  they  had  no  hostility  to 
episcopacy  per  se,  but  they  hated  the  bishops  as  the 
peculiar  aiders  and  upholders  of  tyranny.* 

And  these  views  would  find  expression.  Spite 
of  whipping,  pillory,  and  prison — spite  of  edicts, 
proclamations,  and  search-warrants,  "seditious 
books  "  might  be  purchased  at  every  book-stall  in 
London.t  The  Scottish  charge  that  the  bishops 
were  papists  in  masquerade — an  idea  born  of 
Laud's  impolitic  choice  of  clergymen  who  faced 
towards  the  Vatican  to  fill  the  northern  bishop- 
rics| — was  now  echoed  in  England.§ 

Charles,  under  the  influence  of  his  queen,  and 
impelled  by  his  pecuniary  embarrassments,  had 
always  adopted  a  conciliatory  policy  towards  the 
Eomanists.  While  the  Puritans  were  gagged, 
cropped,  and  hastilled,  papists  were  granted  dispen- 
sations from  the  penal  law^s ;  they  were  allowed  to 
compound  for  recusancy,  and  their  contributions 
were  solicited  towards  the  necessities  of  the  state.il 
The  court  had  been  largely  Eomanized;  the  wit 
and  beauty  of  the  queen  made  her  a  potent  mis- 
sionary ;  a  papal  nuncio  had  come  into  the  island 
in  1637,  bringing  with  him  a  vast  store  of  trinkets 
and  relics.l  Walter  Montagu  and  Toby  Matthews, 


o  Guizot,  vol.  1,  pp.  90,  91. 
J  Burnet's  Own  Times,  p.  12. 
jl  Perry,  p.  546.    Heylin's  Laud. 


t  Perry,  p.  561. 
§  Ibid. 
IF  Heylin's  Laud,  p.  358. 


U 


S02 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


two  Jesuit  proselytes,  were  actively  intriguing  for 
their  newly  adopted  faith  f  and  in  discussing  the 
English  prelates  of  that  time,  three  only.  Hall,  Mor- 
ton, and  Darrant,  were  held  by  the  holy  pontiff  to 
be  obstinately  opposed  to  the  church  of  Kome.t 

The  people  saw  and  pondered;  many  sober 
Protestants  feared  that  they  might  live  to  see  the 
open  establishment  of  the  Inquisition  in  the  isl- 
and.J  In  their  eyes,  Laud  was  the  chief  of  this 
reaction.  But  the  famous  primate,  while  anxious 
to  reconcile  his  order  to  Eome,  and  even  willing  to 
stretch  a  point  "  to  reunite  torn  and  divided  Chris- 
tendom,"§  was  not  willing  to  go  further  than  half- 
way towards  the  Vatican ;  if  he  made  concessions, 
he  expected  them.ll 

But  in  revolutionary  crises,  great  masses  never 
stop  to  philosophize;  they  can  only  see  the  ten- 
dency of  systems,  and  these  they  accept  or  reject 
as  they  make  for  or  against  their  goal.  Laud's 
theories  very  evidently  ran  counter  to  the  current 
of  the  time;  and  the  people  came  to  hate  this 
ghostly  counsellor  of  despotism. 

The  publication,  at  this  excited  moment,  of 
bishop  Hall's  treatise  on  the  jus  divinum  of  epis- 
copacy, gave  added  vehemence  to  the  swelling  cho- 

*  Perry,  p.  560. 
-  t  Heylin's  Laud,  p.  414,  and  on;  also  Perry,  pp.  560,  561, 
note. 

t  Neale,  vol.  1,  ch.  4.    Eeign  of  Charles  L    Hallam's  Con. 
Hist,  vol.  1,  p.  470. 

§  Land's  YTorks,  vol.  6,  p.  45,  et  seq. 

II  Perry,  pp.  544-548. 


THE  LONG  PABLIAMENT. 


303 


rus  of  complaint.  The  good  bishop's  book  was 
altered  and  "stiffened"  by  Laud;  those  passages 
in  which  Hall — one  of  the  brightest  names  in  Eng- 
lish divinity,  an  ornament  to  any  age,  a  clergyman 
whose  evangelical  catholicity  has  won  him  immor- 
tal fame — spoke  of  the  pope  as  antichrist,  or  held 
too  stoutly  to  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath,  or  ad- 
mitted that  a  presbytery  was  of  use  where  episco- 
pacy could  not  be  had,  were  either  erased  or  eased  f 
and  these  alterations  made  the  work  all  the  more 
unpopular  in  England. 

Meantime  the  court  had  resorted  once  more 
to  the  "neto  counsels^  Former  usurpations  were 
renewed.  Taxation  was  levied.t  Members  of  the 
Commons  were  imprisoned  for  words  spoken  in  the 
sanctuary  of  Parliament.J  The  comedy  called  the 
"Scotch  war"  was  at  once  the  pretext  and  the 
sanction  of  this  despotism.  But  in  reality  there 
was  no  war.  The  two  nations  refused  to  fight  each 
other.  When  the  armies  stood  face  to  face,  they 
fraternized.  Strafford's  own  presence  in  the  camp 
had  no  effect  ;§  he  could  neither  persuade,  threaten, 
nor  cajole  the  army  into  belligerency.  When  the 
English  saw  the  written  covenant  floating  on  the 
Scottish  standard,  or  heard  tlie  drum-beat  summon 
the  troops  to  sermon,  or  at  sunrise  heard  the  "  hos- 
tile "  camp  ring  with  psalms  and  prayers,  they  lost 


*  Canterbury's  Doom,  pp.   273,  274.      Perry,  pp.   583,  584 
Neale,  vol.  1,  p.  514.  t  Pari.  Hist,  vol.  2,  col.  584. 

}  Eushworth,  pt.  2,  vol.  2,  p.  11%. 
§  Guizot,  voL  1,  p.  133.    Strafford's  Letters. 


\ 


304        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

all  heart.  Wlien  accounts  of  the  pious  ardor  and 
friendly  disposition  of  the  Scots  towards  them- 
selves reached  their  ears,  they  were  alternately 
softened  and  incensed ;  the  soldiers,  many  of  them 
Puritans  pressed  into  reluctant  service,  cursed  the 
impious  war  in  which  they  were  engaged;  they 
were  already  vanquished  without  a  battle  when 
they  entered  the  lists  against  their  brothers  and 
their  God.* 

Commander  of  an  army  which  would  not  fire  a 
shot ;  which  massacred  its  officers  if  they  were  sus- 
pected of  popery  ;t  which  scattered  when  the  foe 
appeared;  which  stood  with  serene  sangfroid  and 
saw  the  Scots  parade  in  triumph  from  the  banks 
of  the  Tyne  to  York— Strafford  himself  was  con- 
quered; and  when  Charles  spoke  of  an  armistice, 
the  chagrined  minister  sullenly  acquiesced.^ 

The  intense  aversion  to  the  war  had  already 
found  vent  in  riot.  London  was  placarded ;  Laud's 
archiepiscopal  palace  was  sacked;  its  sore  back 
galled  with  grievances,  the  nation  reared,  and  bade 
fair  to  throw  its  booted  and  spurred  riders.  The 
popular  excitement  was  heightened  by  the  exaction 
of  an  oath  from  the  clergy  never  to  consent  to  any 
alteration  in  the  government  of  the  Established 
church.§  This  raised  a  storm  even  among  the  con- 
forming clergy,||  for  "it  was  deemed  unreasonable," 

•  Heylin,  Life  of  Land.     Guizot. 

t  Eushworth,  pt.  2,  vol.  3,  p.  1191. 

X  Burnet's  Own  Times.  §  Perry,  Neale,  Rnshworth. 

IJ  Robert  Sanderson  wrote,  from  his  parsonage  at  Boothby  Pay- 


THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 


305 


says  Fuller,  "to  demand  such  an  oath,  because 
some  of  the  orders  specified  therein,  as  archdeacons, 
deans,  archbishops,  stand  established  only  jure  hu- 
mano  sive  ecdesiastico  ;  and  no  wise  man  ever  denied 
but  that  by  the  same  power  they  are  alterable  on 
just  occasion."^ 

This  oath  was  framed  by  the  convocation  which 
had  been  in  session  at  the  time  of  the  recently  pro- 
rogued ParHament ;  it  concluded  with  an  et  coetera, 
which  provoked  a  smile  of  bitterness  and  mistrust  ;t 
beneath  these  words  were  supposed  to  lurk  the  pope 
and  a  whole  college  of  cardinals.*]: 

This  complication  of  disorders  threw  the  king 
into  deep  melancholy.  He  spoke  of  assembhng  a 
grand  council  of  the  peers  at  York,  a  feudal  convo- 
cation which  had  never  met  through  four  hundred 
years;  but  Charles  half  hoped  that  the  peers,  who 

nell,  "Finding,  to  my  great  grief,  that  great  distaste  is  taken  gen- 
erally in  the  kingdom  to  the  oath  enjoined  by  the  late  canons,  I 
hold  it  to  be  my  bounden  duty  rather  to  hazard  the  reputation  of 
my  discretion,  than  not  to  give  your  grace  some  intimation  there- 
of ;  and  I  am  much  afraid  that  multitudes  of  churchmen,  not  only 
of  the  preciser  sort,  but  even  such  as  are  otherwise  every  way  reg- 
ular and  conformable,  will  either  utterly  refuse  to  take  the  oath, 
or  be  drawn  thereto  by  great  effort  with  much  difficulty  and  reluc- 
tancy.  The  peace  of  the  church  is  apparently  in  danger  to  be 
more  disquieted  by  this  one  occasion  than  by  ^ny  thing  which 
hath  happened  in  our  memories."    Quoted  in  Perry,  p.  617. 

♦  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  410.  * 

t  This  was  the  pui-port  of  the  oath :  "I  swear  never  to  give 
consent  to  any  alteration  in  the  government  of  this  church,  ruled 
as  it  is  at  present  by  archbishops,  bishops,  deacons,  archdeacons, 
etc"  Sparrow's  Collections,  pp.  359,  360.  Peiiy  thinks  that  et 
coetera  was  no  snare,  bat  a  mistake.     See  Perry,  p.  616. 

X  Perry,  p.  618 ;  Neale,  Rushworth. 


306        HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 

had  in  the  past,  when  Parliament  was  weak,  par- 
taken of  sovereign  power,  might  now  help  him  out 
of  his  "  slough  of  despond."* 

But  ere  the  peers  could  be  convened,  the  court 
was  flooded  with  petitions  for  the  convocation  of 
another  Parliament.t  The  king,  timid  and  reluc- 
tant, yet  succumbed.!  Accordingly,  when. the  peers 
met,  they  were  merely  entrusted  with  negotiations 
for  a  peace  with  Scotland,  all  other  business  be- 
ing adjourned  to  the  two  Houses  at  Westminster- 
haU.§ 

On  the  3d  of  November,  1640,  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment—^^ it  was  called  from  the  length  of  its  ses- 
sion—assembled at  Westminster-hall.  It  was  des- 
tined to  be  the  most  famous  and  the  most  power- 
ful representative  body  which  England  has  ever 
known.  Little  did  its  members  foresee,  as  they 
took  their  seats  on  that  chilly  autumn  morning, 
the  prodigious  revolutions  in  church  and  state 
which  they  were  to  set  on  foot.  Chiefly  country 
gentlemen,  possessed  of  large  fortune,  of  gravity, 
of  wisdom,  of  profound  culture,  and  passionately 
patriotic,!  they  were  at  the  outset  inchned  to  be 
satisfied  with  some  few  amendments  in  the  national 
programme.  •  But  God  led  them  on  and  on.  Bev- 
olutions  do  not  obe;^  constables.  The  green  withes 
of  the  law  could  not  bind  the  Samson  of  1641. 

*  Clarendon,  'vol.  1,  p.  253. 

t  Kushworth,  pt.  2,  vol.  2,  p.  1263. 

%  Clarendon,  Hume.  §  ibid.,  Rusnworth. 

li  Clarendon,  Ncale,  Macauley,  Carlyle,  Newell,  Kushworth. 


THE  LONG  PAELIAMENT. 


30T 


Circumstances,  grand,  resistless,  forced  the.Com^ 
mons  farther  than  they  thought  or  knew.  They 
were  true  to  the  necessities  of  their  struggle;  and 
when  the  monarchy  cried  Veto  to  their  acts,  they 
launched  the  Commonwealth  from  the  scaffold  of 
the  king. 

They  commenced  soberly;  but  each  word  was 
emphasized  by  the  remembrance  that  England 
stood  behind  it.  Over  the  court  fell  a  numb  fear. 
Whitehall  was  shrouded  in  gloom.  Charles  never 
spoke  of  his  haughty  prerogative. 

The  Commons,  now  as  always,  presented  a  list 
of  grievances.  Petitions  avouched  them.  Farm- 
ers, tradesmen,  merchants,  the  professions,  through 
their  representatives,"  no  longer  sued  for  redress — 
they  demanded  it.  It  was  enacted  that  no  inter- 
val of  more  than  three  years  should  ever  elapse  in 
future  between  parliament  and  parliament;  and 
this  statute  was  made  executive  by  the  proviso 
that,  if  writs  under  the  great  seal  were  not  issued 
at  the  stated  periods,  the  returning  officers  should, 
without  such  writs,  call  together  the  constituent 
bodies  for  the  choice  of  representatives."^  The 
courts  of  exception — the  Star-chamber,  which  was 
a  political,  the  High  Commission,  which  was  an 

•  

ecclesiastical  usurpation — were  abolished.t  The 
Council  of  York,  which  had  been  armed,  in  defi- 
ance of  law,  by  a  pure  act  of  prerogative,  and  which, 
under  Strafford's  presidency,  had  made  the  Great 

*  Macauley,  Hist,  of  England.    Hume, 
f  Pari.  Hist.    Clarendon. 


308 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


Charter  a  dead  letter  north  of  the  Trent,*  was 
swept  away.  Puritan  prisons  were  opened.  Prjnne, 
Bostwick,  and  Barton  were  brought  out  of  durance 
and  exile — they  had  been  sent  to  the  isle  of  Jer- 
sey— with  great  triumph ;  London  welcomed  them 
peaceably,  but  victoriously,  with  bays  and  rose- 
mary in  its  hands  and  hats."t  The  royal  council 
was  dissolved ;  its  members  were  impeached.  Straf- 
ford was  incarcerated;  Laud  was  flung  into  the 
Tower| — companions  in  misfortune  as  they  had 
been  in  prosperity. 

Tireless,  quiet,  fearfully  in  earnest,  the  Com- 
mons had  adopted  Wentworth's  motto,§  and  thor- 
ough  was  stamped  on  all  their  acts. 

The  trial  of  Strafford  wa's  hastened  on.  De- 
serted by  the  king,  who  had  promised  to  protect 
him, II  the  hapless  minister  pronounced  his  immor- 
tal oration  in  defence  of  his  clearly  indefensible 
conduct,  and  concluded  by  the  admonitory  repeti- 
tion of  the  Scripture  words,  "  Put  not  your  trust  in 
princes."! 

The  House  then  passed  the  Act  of  Attainder,  and 
Strafford  repaid  his  crimes  by  the  forfeit  of  his  life. 

Laud's  impeachment  followed ;  he  was  less  fear- 
ed, but  more  hated,  than  his  twin  usurper.    He  was 

*  Clarendon.     May's  Long  Parliament. 

t  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  412.     Whitelocke's  Memorials,  etc.,  p.  36. 
X  Heylin's  Land  ;  Clarendon,  Macanley,  Hume. 
§  Tliorough  was  the  expressive  name  which  Strafiford  had  given 
in  his  correspondence  to  his  policy.    Strafford's  Letters. 
II  Whitelocke,  p.  36.     Guizot,  vol.  1,  pp.  142,  143. 
IT  State  Trials,  vol.  3,  col.  1383. 


THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 


309 


not  immediately  executed,  but  remained  in  close 
confinement  for  several  years;  nor  did  he  care  to 
break  the  silence  which  appeared  to  swallow  him 
up  in  the  bowels  of  the  gloomy  Tower ;  he  thought 
that  oblivion  for  him  was  safety,  and  only  asked  to 
be  forgotten.* 

On  the  day  of  Strafford's  attainder,  the  king 
gave  his  assent  to  a  law  which  bound  him  not  to 
adjourn,  prorogue,  or  dissolve  the  existing  Parlia- 
ment without  its  own  consent.t  By  this  concession 
he  signed  his  own  death-warrant.  This  done,  the 
two  Houses,  after  ten  months  of  arduous  toil,  ad- 
journed for  a  short  vacation.  :j: 

Meantime,  paralyzed  at  the  aspect  of  the  im- 
mense power  and  the  resolute  courage  of  the  Com- 
mons, the  court  stood  in  gaping  amazement.  "The 
king  concealed  his  uneasiness  and  sorrow  in  com- 
plete inaction ;  the  judges,  fearful  for  themselves, 
did  not  dare  to  protect  a  delinquent ;  the  bishops, 
without  attempting  to  prevent  it,  saw  their  innova- 
tions tumbling  about  their  heads."  The  Puritan 
preachers  returned,  without  any  legal  title,  to  the 
possession  of  their  curacies  and  pulpits.  The  dis- 
senting sects  assembled  with  open  doors.  The 
press  was  unshackled ;  pamphlets  of  all  kinds  were 
freely  circulated.  Men  said,  "  In  this  good  time  of 
Parliament,  England  may  breathe  and  crown  the 
happy  epoch  as  a  jubilee."§ 

•  state  Trials,  vol.  3,  col.  1383.     Heylin's  Laud ;  Guizot. 
t  Macauley,  Hist.  Eng.,  vol.  1,  p.  76.   May's  Long  Parliament. 
Pari.  Hist  %  May's  Long  Pari,  \  Milton. 


310         HISTOBY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


CHAPTEE    XXlil. 

SWOKDS  EOUGH-GROUND. 

In  1641,  after  a  recess  of  six  weeks,  Parliament 
resumed  its  session,  but  it  did  not  resume  its  una- 
nimity. The  court  party  had  recovered  from  its 
lethargy.  The  parliamentary  partisans  of  the  gov- 
ernment, though  outnumbered,  were  still  able  and 
'  numerous ;  swept  away  by  the  excitement,  they 
had  at  first  succumbed,  but  no  Lethe  drugged  their 
senses,  and  the  intermission  had  allowed  them  to 
mature  their  policy,  and  to  organize  a  stout  fight 

for  their  idea. 

The  Puritan  leaders,  the  statesmen  of  the  lower 
house,  though  not  prepared  to  proclaim  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  Commons,  did  avow  the  indepen- 
dence of  Parliament ;  and  it  was  already  in  their 
minds  to  bereave  the  crown  of  its  fatal  prerogative 
by  transferring  the  essential  elements  of  govern- 
ment into  the  hands  of  the  national  representatives. 
Hampden,  Pym,  Yane,  HoUis,-  Stapleton,  knew  that 
such  a  programme  was  an  infraction  of  the  existing 
laws ;  but  they  also  knew  that  there  was  something 
more  sacred"  than  the  jus  divinum  of  kings,  some- 
thing more  priceless  than  the  chartered  parch- 
ments of  the  past — liberty;  and  aware  that  the 
Constitution,  broad  as  it  then  was,  did  not  insure 


SWORDS  ROUGH-GROUND. 


311 


w 


that,  they  meant  to  guarantee  it  by  more  immuta- 
ble enactments.  They  reverenced  the  past,  but 
they  reverenced  the  future  still  more.  They  recog- 
nized the  value  of  law,  but  they  knew  that  justice 
was  still  weightier.  Fresh  from  the  schools  of 
Athens  and  Kome,  they  found  at  once  the  apology 
and  the  necessity  for  their  unconstitutional  action 
in  Cicero's  glorious  Latin,  "  Salus  populi  suprema 

Under  the  apparent  concord,  a  great  schism  was 
latent.  Events  soon  developed  the  historic  parties 
of  the  Boundheads  and  the  Cavaliers. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  new  session,  diversity  of 
wishes  and  opinions  was  manifested.  The  Scottish 
Presbyterians,  spreading  through  the  country,  had 
made  many  proselytes  among  the  people,  and  even 
inoculated  Parliament  itself;  so  that  when  London 
sent  up  its  famous  prayer,  known  as  the  root-and- 
hranch  petition,  for  the  entire  abolition  of  episco- 
pacy, it  found  ardent  friends  in  the  House.t 

A  little  later,  seven  hundred  ecclesiastics  soHc- 
ited  the  reform  of  the  temporal  authority  of  the 
bishops  ;t  and  this  was  followed  in  its  turn  by  the 
arrival  of  nineteen  petitions  from  several  counties, 
signed  by  one  hundred  thousand  names,  recom- 
mending the  maintenance  of  the  Episcopal  estab- 
li8hment.§ 

The  Commons  were  divided  in  sentiment.    The 

o  The  safety  of  the  people  is  the  highest  law. 

t  December  11,  1640.    Rushworth,  pt.  3,  vol.  1,  p.  93. 

%  Neale,  vol.  1,  chs.  6,  7.    Clarendon.  §  Ibid. 


312 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


more  rigid  Puritans  urged  the  adoption  of  the  root'- 
and'hranch  petition,  and  they  were  supported  by 
numbers  of  the  country  gentlemen,  who  had  no 
especial  dislike  to  the  ritual,  but  in  whose  minds 
prelacy  and  tyranny,  through  the  course  of  Laud, 
were  synonymous  terms.* 

The  moderates,  headed  by  Lord  Falkland,  whom 
Clarendon  esteemed  the  most  extraordinary  man  of 
that  extraordinary  age,t  refused  to  adopt  so  radical 
a  pohcy,  but  they  expressed  their  wdllingness  to 
lop  off  all  abuses.:t 

The  debate  was  violent  and  protracted.  Even- 
tually a  bill  was  proposed  barring  ecclesiastics  from 
all  civil  functions,  and  excluding  the  bishops  from 
the  House  of  Lords.  On  this  the  Commons  com- 
promised ;  but  it  was  beaten  in  the  upper  house.§ 

The  alliance  between  the  two  houses  of  Parlia- 
ment was  not  at  this  time  overcordial.  The  Lords, 
representing  the  hereditary  interests,  the  vested 
rights,  the  aristocratic  caste  of  the  island,  were  timid 
by  instinct  and  conservative  by  nature.  They 
looked  with  suspicion  upon  any  change,  and  be- 
•wailed  innovation.  If  the  Commons  were  the  spurs 
of  the  revolution,  the  Lords  were  its  checks. 

The  two  Houses  at  this  time  represented  differ- 
ent tendencies,  the  conservative  and  progressive: 
distinctions  which  are  founded  in  diversity  of  tem- 
per, habit,  education,  intellect,  and  therefore  pres- 
ent in  all  societies,  and  sure  to  exist  so  long  as  the 

•  Guizot,  vol.  1,  book  3.  t  Clarendon,  MemoirB. 

X  Pari.  Hist,  vol.  2,  col.  794-814.  §  Ibid.,  col.  794. 


SWORDS  ROUGH-GROUND. 


313 


-^/ 


human  mind  is  drawn  in  opposite  directions  by  the 
force  of  habit  and  by  the  charm  of  novelty.  This 
difference  is  not  confined  to  politics  and  religion ; 
it  is  seen  in  literature,  in  art,  in  science,  in  sur- 
gery, in  navigation,  in  mechanics,  in  agriculture, 
and  even  in  mathematics.  "  Everywhere,"  observes 
Macauley,  "  there  is  a  class  of  men  who  cling  with 
fondness  to  whatever  is  ancient,  and  who,  even 
when  convinced  by  overpowering  reasons  that  in- 
novation would  be  beneficial,  consent  to  it  with 
many  misgivings  and  forebodings.  There  is  always 
another  class  of  men  sanguine,  bold  in  speculation, 
always  pressing  forward,  quick  to  discern  the  im- 
perfections of  whatever  exists,  and  disposed  to  think 
lightly  of  the  risks  and  inconveniences  which  attend 
improvements.  Both  are  necessary ;  but  of  both 
the  best  specimens  are  found  not  far  from  the  com- 
mon frontier."^ 

Stuart  Mill  thinks  that  conservatism  is  neces- 
sarily stupid,  but  holds  that,  since  two-thirds  of  the 
^constituents  of  every  society  are  also  stupid,  it  may 
plume  itself  on  always  being  sure  to  have  the  largest 

party.t 

But  even  the  conservatism  of  the  House  of 
Lords  grew  radical  under  the  pressure  of  events. 
Thus  far  the  revolution  had  been  mpral.  News 
came  that  Leland  was  heaving  in  rebellion.  Half 
civilized,  crowded  down  into  vassalage  by  their 
conquerors,    bigoted    Komanists,    the    aboriginal 

*  Macauley,  Hist.  Eng.,  vol.  1,  pp.  76,  77. 

t  Speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  June  18,  1866. 


PnrltAnti. 


14 


314        UISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

tribes  had  risen  against  the  colonists,  and  a  war 
which  was  a  massacre  desolated  the  green  island. 
National  and  theological  hatred  gave  the  outbreak 
increased  ferocity,  and  the  butchery  of  Protes- 
tants rivalled  in  horror  the  Paris  St.  Bartholo- 
mew.* 

"A  horrible  suspicion,  unjust  indeed,  but  not 
altogether  unnatural,  seized  the  Parliament.  The 
queen  was  an  avo^Yed  Komanist ;  the  king  was  not 
regarded  by  the  Puritans,  whom  he  had  mercilessly 
persecuted,  as  a  sincere  Protestant ;  and  so  notori- 
ous was  his  duplicity,  that  there  was  no  treachery 
of  which  he  was  not  believed  capable.  It  was  soon 
whispered  that  this  awful  holocaust  of  Eome  in 
Erin  was  part  of  a  vast  work  of  darkness  which 
had  been  planned  at  Whitehall."t 

Then  passion  broke  loose;  a  remonstrance,  enu- 
merating the  faults  of  the  king's  administration 
from  the  date  of  his  accession,  and  covering  both 
civil  and  rehgious  grievances,  was  introduced.  This 
was  addressed,  not  to  the'king,  but  to  the  people,^ 
and  it  was  couched  in  haughty  language.  After  a 
rancorous  debate,  it  was  adopted  by  a  small  ma- 

jority.J 

Meantime  riot  raged  in  the  streets.  The  pulpit 
bewailed  the  dangers  which  menaced  rehgion  from 
the  desperate  attempts  of  papists  and  malignants ; 
frantic  multitudes  crowded  to  Westminster,  and  in- 

0  Hume,  vol.  2,  pp.  268-273. 

1  Macauley,  History  of  England,  vol.  1,  p.  82. 
X  Pari.  History.     May's  Long  Parliament 


*  I 

<  II 


SWOEDS  EOUGH-GBOUND. 


315 


■1 


If 


suited  the  prelates  and  the  Cavaliers  on  the  route 
to  and  from  Parliament.* 

The  Romans  had  a  custom  that,  once  a  year,  a 
solemn  festival  should  be  held,  in  which  their  slaves 
had  full  liberty  to  ease  their  minds  by  saying  of 
their  masters  what  they  pleased.  In  England  the 
saturnalia  seenied  now  resurrected.  But  the  prel- 
ates, less  complacent  than  the  ancients,  were  dis- 
pleased with  the  "plain  speech"  of  the  plebeians;, 
so  one  day  they  sent  up  to  the  Lords  a  protestation, 
in  which  they  stated  that,  though  they  had  an  un- 
doubted right  to  sit  in  the  upper  house,  they  were 
restrained  therefrom  by  the  affronts  of  the  unruly 
multitude.  Since  therefore  they  could  not  safely 
take  their  seats,  they  protested  against  all  legisla- 
tion during  their  absence. t 

The  protestation  was  signed  by  twelve  bishops, 
and  heartily  approved  by  the  king.it 

This  ill-timed  and  siUy  act  compromised  both 
king  and  prelates.  "  As  soon  as  it  was  presented 
to  the  Lords,"  says  Hume,  "  that  House  desired  a 
conference  with  the  Commons,  whom  they  informed 
of  this  ill-starred  paper.  The  opportunity  was 
seized  with  joy  and  triumph.  An  impeachment  for 
high-treason  was  immediately  issued  against  the 
prelates,  as  endeavoring  to  subvert  the  fundamen- 
tal laws  by  invalidating  the  authority  of  legislation. 
They  were,  on  the  first  demand,  sequestrated  from 
Parliament,  and  committed  to  custody.     No  man 


*  Hume,  vol.  2,  pp.  278,  279 
f  Ibid. ;  Fuller,  Lathbury. 


X  Hume,  Macauley. 


f 


316        HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

in  either  house  ventured  to  speak  a  word  in  their 
vindication,  so  much  was  every  one  displeased  at 
the  egregious  imprudence  of  which  they  had  been 
guilty.  One  person  alone  said  that  he  did  not 
believe  them  guilty  of  high-treason,  but  that  they 
were  stark  mad,  and  he  therefore  desired  that  they 
might  be  sent  to  Bedlam."* 

But  the  king's  treachery  soon  made  this  "  Ossa 
like  a  wart."    Bereaved  of  Strafford  and  deprived 
of  Laud,  Charles  had  expressed  his  wish  to  govern 
in  harmony  with  the  Commons,  and  in  order  to  that, 
had  proposed  to  call  into  his  cabinet  constitutional 
loyalists  like  Falkland,  Hyde,  and  Colepepper,  all  of 
whom  were  distinguished  by  the  share  which  they  had 
taken  in  the  reformation  of  abuses,  yet  whose  attach- 
ment to  the  existing  forms  was  decided  and  sincere.t 
Had  this  been  done,  the  revolution  might  even 
then  have  been  averted.     A  strong  party  backed 
the  constitutionalists;  custom  was  on  their  side; 
and  had  the  king  been  honest,  the  headsman's  axe 
would  have  been  left  to  rust.    But  he  hated  his  new 
advisers ;  "  they  were  by  no  means  men  after  his 
own  heart.     They  were  lovers  of  liberty,  and  they 
were  attached  to  the  existing  regime  only  because 
they  thought  that  a  few  reforms  would  insure  liber- 
ty.   They  had  joined  in  condemning  his  tyranny,  in 
abridging  his  power,  and  in  punishing  his  instru- 
ments.    They  were  even  indeed  prepared  to  defend 
by  strictly  legal  means  his  strictly  legal  preroga- 

•  Hame,  vol.  2,  p.  277. 

t  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  157.    Clarendon,  vol.  2,  p.  73. 


SWORDS  ROUGH-GROUND. 


317 


tives;  but  they  would  have  recoiled  with  horror 
from  the  thought  of  renewing  Laud's  usurpations 
or  reviving  Strafford's  projects  of  "  tJioroiigh"  They 
were  therefore,  in  the  king's  estimation,  traitors 
who  differed  only  in  the  degree  of  their  seditious 
malignity  from  Pym  and  Hampden."* 

His  project  then  of  calling  the  constitutionalist 
chiefs  into  his  council  was  an  empty  7n^se,  a  shallow 
trick  to  gain  time.  One  day,  without  prior  consul- 
tation with  his  friends,  he  sent  the  attorney-general 
to  impeach  Hampden,  Pym,  HoUis,  and  other  Puri- 
tan leaders  of  the  Commons,  at  the  bar  of  the 
House  of  Lords ;  and  his  insanity  carried  him  so 
far  that  he  even  invaded  the  sanctuary  of  Westmin- 
ster Hall  by  marching  at  the  head  of  his  guard  to 
seize  them  in  person.t 

Abashed  and  dismayed,  the  Cavaliers  stood  si- 
lent. The  opposition  leaders  escaped  arrest,J  but 
this  attempt  taught  them  that  their  necks  were 
now  staked  on  success.  London  was  stirred  to 
portentous  rage.§  England  at  large  began  to  arm. 
The  Puritan  clergy  inspired  their  disciples  to  a 
manful  defence  of  the  "  good  old  cause."  The  col- 
ors of  the  Parliament  were  on  every  hat.ll  White- 
hall itself  was  surrounded  by  a  cordon  of  offended 
yeomen.lT  And  the  king,  fearing  his  own  arrest, 
quitted  his  capital,  and  skulked  like  a  malefactor 
to  the  provincial  town  of  York.** 

*  Macauley,  vol.  1,  p.  84. 

f  May's  Long  Pari.  ;  Clarendon,  Burnet.  J  Ibid. 

§  Guizot,  Clarendon.  ||  Ibid.  IT  Ibid. 

••  Harris,  Life  of  Charles  I.  ;  Clarendon,  Carlyle. 


I 


318         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


What  followed  falls  properly  into  the  depart- 
ment of  civil  history ;  but  in  those  times  political 
and  religious  affairs  were  so  closely  married  that  it 
is  impossible  to  divorce  them.  If  we  would  get  a 
clear  insight  into  English  Protestantism  in  the  sev- 
enteenth century,  we  must  also  understand  the  pol- 
itics of  the  age.  And  indeed  it  has  been  well  said, 
that  in  the  great  rebelHon  it  was  not  so  much  the 
civil  as  the  religious  grievances  of  England  that 
gathered  adherents  to  the  Parliament.  It  was 
Puritanism  watching  with  jealousy  the  tendencies 
towards  the  hated  system  of  Eome,  and  clinging  to 
the  Bible  and  to  purity  of  faith  and  form,  which 
vivified  and  dignified  the  struggle. 

At  length,  in  1642,  after  tedious  negotiations, 
succeeded  by  crimination  and  recrimination,  the 
sword  was  imsheathed,  and  the  disputed  questions 
were  left  to  the  decision  of  that  stern  arbitrator, 
war. 

Englishmen  were  summoned  to  choose  sides  in 
this  death- dance.  To  republican  eyes  the  Parlia- 
ment was  so  self-evidently  right  in  every  essential 
respect,  that  men  often  find  it  hard  to  believe  that 
honest,  even  if  mistaken  Cavaliers  could  have 
fought  under  the  banners  of  the  king.  But  the 
England  of  1642  was  not  the  United  States  of  1866. 
The  constitutionahsts,  many  of  whom  were  pos- 
sessed of  marked  virtues  and  abiUties,  forced  to 
choose  between  two  dangers,  and  honestly  wedded 
to  the  monarchy,  esteemed  it  their  duty  rather  to 
rally  to  the  aid  of  a  prince  whose  past  conduct 


SWORDS  ROUGH-GROUND. 


319 


they  condemned,  and  whose  word  inspired  them 
with  little  confidence,  than  to  suffer  the  subversion 
of  the  royal  polity.  The  Komanists  were  royalists 
because  the  queen  was  of  their  faith,  and  also  be- 
cause they  knew  that  Charles  granted  them  a  much 
more  liberal  toleration  than  the  Puritans  would 
concede.  "  On  the  same  side  were  the  great  body 
of  the  clergy,  both  the  universities,  and  all  those 
laymen  who  were  strongly  attached  to  episcopal 
government  and  to  the  English  ritual.  These  re- 
spectable classes  found  themselves  in  the  company 
of  some  allies  much  less  decorous  than  themselves. 
Puritan  austerity  drove  to  the  king's  faction  all 
who  made  pleasure  their  business,  who  affected 
gallantry,  splendor  of  dress,  or  taste  in  the  higher 
arts.  With  these  went  all  who  Hved  by  amusing 
the  leisure  of  others,  from  the  painter  and  the 
comic  poet  down  to  the  rope-dancer  and  the  Merry 
Andrew;  for  these  artists  knew  that  they  might 
thrive  under  a  superb  and  luxurious  despotism, 
but  must  starve  under  the  rigid  rule  of  the  pre- 
cisians."* 

The  whole  royalist  party  is  not  chargeable  with 
"  the  profligacy  and  baseness  of  the  horse-boys,  the 
gamblers,  and  the  bravos,  whom  the  hope  of  plun- 
der attracted  from  all  the  dens  of  Whitefriars  to 
the  standard  of  the  king ;  nor  were  the  Cavahers 
the  instruments  which  despots  in  other  countries 
have  employed,  with  the  mutes  who  throng  their 
ante-chambers,  and  the  janizaries  who  mount  guard 
o  Macauley,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  vol.  1,  p.  79. 


320        HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


at  their  gates.  They  were  not  mere  machines  for 
destruction,  dressed  up  in  uniforms,  caned  into 
skill,  intoxicated  into  valor,  defending  without  love, 
destroying  without  hatred.  There  was  a  freedom 
in  their  subserviency,  a  nobleness  in  their  very 
degradation.  They  were  indeed  misled,  but  often 
by  no  base  or  selfish  motive.  Compassion,  mis- 
conceptions of  romantic  honor,  the  prejudices  of 
childhood,  and  the  venerable  names  of  history, 
threw  over  them  a  spell  potent  as  that  of  Duessa ; 
and  like  the  Red-cross  knight,  they  thought  that 
they  were  doing  battle  for  some  injured  beauty, 
while  they  defended  a  false  and  loathsome  sorceress. 
In  truth  they  scarcely  entered  into  the  merits  of  the 
political  question;  they  had  not  themselves  been 
pinched  or  harried,  and  they  knew  nothing  and 
cared  less  for  those  who  had.  It  was  not  for  a 
treacherous  king  or  an  intolerant  church  that  they 
fought,  but  for  the  old  banner  which  had  waved  in 
so  many  battles  over  the  heads  of  their  fathers,  and 
for  the  altars  at  which  they  had  received  the  hands 
of  their  brides.  Though  nothing  could  be  more 
erroneous  than  their  political  opinions,  they  pos- 
sessed, in  a  fairer  degree  than  their  adversaries, 
those  qualities  which  are  the  grace  of  private  life ; 
with  many  of  the  vices  of  the  round-table,  they  had 
also  many  of  its  virtues — courtesy,  generosity,  ten- 
derness, and  respect  for  woman."* 

The  parliamentary  muster  was  in  strong  con- 
trast with  the  king's  glittering  array.    Under  the 

o  Macanley,  Essay  on  Milton. 


SWOEDS  EOUGH-GEOUND. 


321 


banner  of  the  Commons  stood  incarnated  Puritan- 
ism, reinforced  by  the  small  freeholders,  the  mer- 
chants, the  shop-keepers,  the  municipal  corpora- 
tions ;  by  those  members  of  the  Established  church 
who  still  adhered  to  the  Cavinistic  doctrines  which 
forty  years  before  had  been  generally  held  by  the 
prelates  and  the  clergy,  but  who  had  no  affection 
for  the  Genevan  discipline ;  and  by  a  formidable 
minority  of  the  aristocracy. 

But  the  Puritans  were  at  once  the  main  stay 
and  the  inspiration  of  the  popular  cause ;  and  they 
were  attracted  towards  the  Parliament  by  its  pre- 
ponderating religious  earnestness.  Officered  by 
Pym,  the  Papinian  of  England ;  by  Hampden,  a 
statesman  and  a  soldier  sans  peicr  et  sans  reproche  ; 
by  Harry  Yane — 

'♦Vane,  young  in  years,  but  in  sage  counsel  old;" 

by  Fairfax, 

♦♦Whose  name  in  arms  through  Europe  rings, 
Filling  each  mouth  with  envy  or  with  praise, 
And  all  her  jealous  monarchs  with  amaze. 
And  rumors  loud  that  daunt  remotest  kings ;" 

by  Cromwell,  the 

♦♦Chief  of  men,  who  through  a  cloud 
Not  of  war  only,  but  distractions  rude, 
Guided  by  faith  and  matchless  fortitude;'* 

and  by  Milton,  the  mouth-piece  and  the  trenchant 
pen  of  "the  good  old  cause  "—officered  by  such 
chiefs,  militant  Puritanism,  Unking  hands  with  civil 
liberty,  could  not  but  receive  the  benediction  of  the 
God  of  battle. 

14* 


322         HISTOBY  OF  THE  PUBITANS. 


' 


FIGHT  FOR  TOLERATION. 


323 


CHAPTEK  XXIV. 

THE  GOOD  FIGHT  FOR  TOLERATION. 

The  early  months  of  1642  were  spent  by  both 
king  and  Parliament  in  active  preparation  for  their 
death -grip.  The  two  athletes  lavished  their  cun- 
ning npon  their  training  before  venturing  to  face 
each  other  in  the  arena. 

Charles,  traversing  the  northern  and  western 
counties,  recruited  an  army  by  plausible  harangues, 
by  spendthrift  promises,  by  the  woful  aspect  of 
his  ruffled  regahty;  and  the  enthusiastic  Cavaliers, 
pawning  their  jewels,  mortgaging  their  estates, 
melting  their  silver  chargers  and  christening-bowls, 
hastened  to  enlist.^ 

Nor  was  the  Parliament  less  active  :  severe  and 
methodical  taxation  coined  gold ;  a  mihtia  force  was 
organized ;  the  train-bands  of  the  cities  were  armed, 
and  the  provident  statesmen  of  the  Commons  col- 
lected all  the  elements  of  their  scattered  strength.f 
The  importance  of  effecting  an  alliance  with  Scot- 
land was  soon  felt  and  seen.  The  northern  king- 
dom was,  in  some  sense,  the  inaugurator  of  the  strife, 
since  the  helium  Fpiscopale  had  struck  the  tocsin  of 
armed  resistance.  Scotland,  from  the  Orkneys  to 
the  Tweed,  was  obstinately  and  intolerantly  tied  in 

*  Macauley,  Hist.  Eng.,  vol.  1,  p.  88.    Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  19. 
f  Hume,  May's  Long  Pari.,  etc. 


the  Covenant.  The  Presbyterian  clergy  ruled  there 
as  absolutely  as  the  bishops  did  in  England  under 
Laud.*  Not  only  so,  but  the  Presbyterians  had 
gained  firm  foothold  in  the  Parliament  itself ;  and 
now,  when  a  league  was  proposed,  it  was  urged  as 
a  sine  qua  nan,  that  episcopacy  should  be  formally 
abolished.t  "Marvellous  art  and  industry,"  re- 
marks Clarendon,  "were  employed  in  engineering 
this  bill.  A  majority  of  the  Commons  were  really 
against  it,  and  it  was  hardly  submitted  to  by  the 
House  of  Peers ;  yet  it  passed  without  one  negative 
vote ;  and  bonfires  and  bell-peals  ratified  the  act 
in  London."t  "It  may  seem  strange,"  comments 
Neale,  "  that  Parliament  should  abolish  the  existing 
Estabhshment  before  they  had  agi-eed  upon  another; 
but  the  Scots  would  not  declare  for  them  till  they 
had  done  it.  Had  the  two  houses  been  inclined 
to  Presbytery,  as  some  have  maintained,  it  had 
been  easy  to  have  adopted  the  Scots'  model  at  once ; 
but  as  the  bill  for  extirpating  episcopacy  was  not  to 
take  place  till  above  a  year  forward,  it  was  appar- 
ent that  they  were  willing  it  should  not  take  place 
at  all,  if  in  that  time  they  could  come  to  an  accom- 
modation with  the  king ;  and  if  the  breach  should 
then  remain,  they  proposed  to  consult,  with  an  as- 
sembly of  divines  what  form  to  erect  in  its  stead. 
Thus  the  old  ritual  lay  prostrate  for  eighteen  years, 

*  Chambers,  in  his  history  of  the  rebellions  in  Scotland,  tells 
some  strange  stories  of  the  despotic  authority  of  the  Presbyterian 
clergy.     See  vol.  1,  pp.  43-46,  Introduction. 

t  Pari.  Hist.    May's  Long  Pari. 

X  Clarendon,  vol.  1,  p.  279. 


324        HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

altliougli  never  legally  abolished  for  want  of  the 
royal  assent;  and  therefore  at  the  Kestoration  it 
took  place  again,  without  any  new  law  to  restore  it: 
the  Presbyterians,  who  were  then  in  the  saddle,  not 
understanding  this,  did  not  provide  against  it,  as 
they  might  have  done."* 

An  anecdote  illustrates  the  lack  of  zeal  which 
characterized  the  loyalists  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. On  this  very  occasion,  when  the  life  or  death 
of  the  church  of  England  was  in  earnest  debate,  the 
Cavaliers,  weary  and  hungry,  quitted  Westminster 
Hall  to  carouse  in  an  adjoining  coffee-house.  Dur- 
ing their  absence,  the  bill  was  passed,  which  caused 
Lord  Falkland  to  remark,  that  "  the  enemies  of  the 
church  hated  it  worse  than  the  devil,  while  its  very 
best  friends  did  not  Hke  it  so  well  as  their  dinner."t 

Meanwhile  war  had  actually  commenced.  Edge- 
hill  was  soaked  in  fraternal  gore.  Twelve  months 
of  checkered  conflict  passed,  and  the  king,  triumph- 
ant in  the  north  and  west,  was  the  decided  gainer. 
Already  England  had  lost  the  flower  of  her  sons. 
The  "brave  Lord  Brooke,"  one  of  the  brightest 
ornaments  of  the  Puritan  party,  the  Sydney  of  the 
war,  was  slain.J  Falkland,  the  Bayard  of  the  roy- 
alist party,  had  fought  his  last  battle.§  Hampden 
had  fallen,  as  became  him,  vainly  endeavoring,  by 
his  heroic  example,  to  inspire  his  followers  with 
courage  to  face  the  fiery  cavalry  of  Eupert.l 


•  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  18,  19. 
X  March  2,  1643. 
II  June  24,  1643. 


f  Clarendon. 
§  September  20,  1643. 


FIGHT  FOR  TOLERATION.  325 

"Nothing  is  here  for  tears ;  nothing  to  wail 
Or  knock  the  breast ;  no  weakness,  no  contempt, 
Dispraise  or  blame  ;  nothing -but  well  and  fair." 

Agitated  by  these  losses  and  reverses.  Parlia- 
ment sent  a  commission,  headed  by  Vane,  whose 
eloquence,  address,  capacity,  and  tolerant  breadth 
of  statesmanship  made  him  the  fitting  successor  of 
Hampden,  to  Edinburgh,  to  solicit  a  closer  union. 
These  negotiations  were  successful.  The  "  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant"  was  signed  by  the  Scottish 
convention  of  states  and  by  the  general  assembly, 
and  the  next  morning  the  commissioners  departed 
for  London,  to  obtain  the  assent  of  England  to  the 
nascent  confederacy.^ 

This  famous  paper  consisted  of  six  articles, 
pledging  those  who  took  it  to  mutual  brotherhood ; 
to  tne  preservation  of  Presbyterianism  in  Scotland  ; 
to  the  extirpation  of  popery,  prelacy,  "  and  whatso- 
ever was  contrary  to  sound  doctrine  and  the  power 
of  godliness ;  and  to  the  maintenance  of  the  liber- 
ties of  both  kingdoms."t 

There  was  much  debate  over  the  form  of  the 
Covenant,  even  before  it  was  signed  in  Scotland. 
Vane  desired  a  civil  league  ;  the  Scotch  pressed  for 
a  religious  covenant  Vane,  a  devotee  of  toleration, 
knew  that  the  Covenanters  claimed  that  divine  right 
on  which  the  bishops  grounded  Episcopacy  as  the 
prerogative  of  Presbyterianism,  and  he  dreaded  lest 

o  Burnet,  Mem.  of  the  Hamiltons.  Baillie,  Letters,  vol.  1,  p.  381. 
■f  Chambers,  vol.  1,  pp.  231-253.    Burnet,  Mem.  of  the  Hamil- 
tons. 


326 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


the  synod  should  replace  the  prelates,  and  in  their 
turn  press  conformity,  as  happened  in  the  sequel. 

But  the  Scotch  were  stubborn ;  home  necessi- 
ties pressed ;  so  the  utmost  concession  that  Vane's 
skilful  diplomacy  could  wring  was,  that  the  paper 
should  be  called  a  league,  to  meet  the  views  of  those 
who  did  not  approve  of  its  religious  aspect,  and  a 
covenant  for  the  satisfaction  of  such  as  chiefly  val- 
ued its  ecclesiastical  character.* 

But  during  the  pendency  of  this  debate,  that 
celebrated  convocation  was  called  which  history 
recognizes  as  The  Westrnmster  Assembly  of  Divines, 

Against  the  formal  protest  of  the  king,t  Parlia- 
ment ordained,  on  its  own  authority,  a  convention 
of  "  learned  and  godly  divines  and  others,  to  be  con- 
sulted with  by  the  Parhament,  for  settling  the  gov- 
ernment and  liturgy  of  the  church  of  England.''^ 

Ten  lords,  twenty  commoners,  and  one  hundred 
and  twenty-one  clergymen  were  summoned  by  name 
to  attend,  and  equal  liberty  in  voting  and  debating 
was  conceded.§  The  two  houses  appointed  them- 
selves the  court  of  dernier  ressortl 

On  the  1st  of  July,  1643,  sixty-nine  divines,  ac- 
companied by  the  parliamentary  delegation,  assem- 
bled in  that  magnificent  chapel  which  Henry  VII. 
had  reared  at  Westminster,  and  one  of  the  finest 
specimens  of  mediaeval  church  architecture  in  Eng- 

o  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  305;  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  67;  Chambers,  nt 
antea.  f  Clarendon,  Burnet. 

X  Pari.  Hist,  vol.  3,  col.  173;  Kushworth,  part  3,  vol.  3,  p. 
475.  '  §  Ibid 

II  ParL  Hist.,  vol.  3,  col.  173. 


FIGHT  FOB  TOLERATION. 


327 


land.  But  to  the  grave  worthies  in  black — for  in 
imitation  of  the  foreign  Protestants,  the  clergy  had 
discarded  their  canonical  habits^ — this  "haunt  of 
prelacy"  was  veiled  with  gloomy  associations.  As 
they  glanced  around,  they  thought  of  Laud,  of  the 
Star-chamber,  of  the  High  Commission,  of  cropped 
ears,  sHt  noses,  and  confiscated  goods.  The  vaulted 
roof,  clinging  from  the  clustered  pillars  in  the  walls 
like*^  branches  of  lofty  trees  interlaced,  forming  a 
rich  canopy  of  leaves,  had  no  charms  for  them.  If 
the  building  was  "a  poem  in  stone,"  it  related  a  sad 
story ;  "  and  the  fretwork,  elaborately  spread  over 
the  cold  walls  and  roof,  became  no  unapt  symbol 
of  that  ingeniously  wrought  system  of  perverted 
religion  elaborated  in  Eome,  which  overreached  so- 
ciety through  the  middle  ages,  and  which  has  been 
fitly  termed  '  a  petrifaction  of  Christianity.'  Now, 
when  pacing  those  dim  aisles,  perhaps  they  felt  a 
struggle  in  their  breasts  between  emotions  of  taste 
and  the  sentiments  of  faith ;  and  the  charms  of  artis- 
tic beauty  were  weakened,  if  not  dispelled,  by  the 
remembrance  of  the  ecclesiastical  despotism  which, 
by  means  like  these,  among  others,  for  so  many  cen- 
turies held  captive  the  minds  of  their  forefathers. "t 
Still  they  entered  this 

"  Studious  cloister  pale," 

and  considered  mooted  and  knotty  points  of  theol- 
ogy under 


•  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  63. 

t  Stoughton,  Spiritual  Heroes,  pp.  144,  145. 


328         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


««the  high  embowered  roo^ 

"With  antique  pillars  massy  proof, 
And  storied  windows,  richly  dight, 
Casting  a  dim,  religious  light." 

Hallam  describes  the  Westminster  Assembly  as 
"equal  in  learning,  good  sense,  and  other  merits, 
to  any  lower  house  of  convocation  that  ever  made 
a  figure  in  England."*  And  Baxter  says,  "The 
divines  there  assembled  were  men  eminent  in  learn- 
ing, godliness,  ministerial  abilities,  and  fidelity ;  and 
being  not  worthy  to  be  one  of  them  myself,  I  may 
the  more  freely  speak  the  truth,  even  in  the  face  of 
malice  and  envy,  that  so  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge, 
by  the  information  of  all  history  of  that  kind,  the 
Christian  world  since  the  days  of  the  apostles  had 
never  a  synod  of  more  excellent  divines  than  this 
and  the  Synod  of  Dort."t 

Milton's  opinion  was  not  so  favorable.  He 
thought  the  convocation  the  hand  on  the  dial,  mov- 
ing and  pointing  as  directed  by  the  clock  of  Pres- 
byterianism ;  and  he  could  never  forgive  it  the  at- 
tempt to  enact  that  creed  into  the  national  religion 
instead  of  decreeing  toleration. :[ 

When  the  doctrinal  debates  began,  three  parties 
were  developed.  The  majority  were  Presbyterians, 
men  who  believed  that  elders,  clerical  and  lay,  were 
the  only  divinely  appointed  rulers  of  the  church ; 
and  that  synods,  general  and  provincial,  were  the 
only  ecclesiastical  courts  of  divine  appointment.§ 

*  Hallam,  Cons.  Hist.,  vol.  1,  p.  609. 

t  Baxter's  Life  and  Times,  p.  193.        %  Milton,  Prose  Works. 

§  Chambers,  Neale,  Newell,  Clarendon,  Baxter. 


FIGHT  FOR  TOLERATION. 


329 


Next  in  number  and  authority  were  the  Eras- 
tians*  who  held  that  the  precise  form  of  church 
government  was  not  appointed  in  Scripture,  but 
was  left  entirely  to  the  magistracy,  with  whom  alone 
resided  the  power  to  inflict  punishment  for  ofl'en- 
ces  ;t  and  such  eminent  men  as  Selden,  Whitelocke, 
and  Oliver  St.  John  were  the  chiefs  of  this  party.J 

Last  came  the  Independents,  a  small  party,  just 
rising  into  reputation,  the  fathers  of  modern  Con- 
gregationalism, the  brothers  of  the  exiled  Pilgrims 
of  Plymouth  rock.  They  conceived  that  every 
Christian  congregation  had,  under  Christ,  supreme 
jurisdiction  in  things  spiritual  over  its  own  pastor 
and  its  own  members ;  they  rejected  the  interposi- 
tion of  the  magistrate  in  religious  aftairs ;  they  held 
that  the  individual  churches  were  destitute  of  tem- 
poral sanction  ;  in  their  eyes,  appeals  to  the  provin- 
cial and  national  synods  were  scarcely  less  unscrip- 
tural  than  appeals  to  tlie  court  of  Arches  or  to  the 
Vatican  :  holding  to  the  democracy  of  Christianity, 
they  esteemed  popery,  prelacy,  and  Presbyterianism 
to  be  merely  three  forms  of  one  great  apostasy.§ 

In  politics  they  were,  to  use  the  phrase  of  their 
time,  root-and-branch  men ;  or,  to  use  the  kindred 
phrase  of  our  age,  radicals.  Not  content  with  lim- 
itmg  the  power  of  the  monarch,  they  were  desirous 
to  erect  a  commonwealth  on  the  ruins  of  the  old 
English  polity.il 

*  Chap.  12,  p.  170,  note. 

f  Hume,  Newell,  etc.  t  NeweU,  p.  269. 

§  Macauley,  Hist.  Eng.,  vol.  1,  p.  90;  Hume,  vol.  2,  pp.  314, 
3J5  II  Macauley,  p.  91. 


330        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

Among  the  Independents  were  found  the  only 
friends  which  toleration  then  could  count.  All  of 
that  party  were  not  true  to  their  principles  or  log- 
ical in  their  applications,  as  events  amply  demon- 
strated when  they  controlled  the  commonwealth ; 
but  their  philosophers,  their  orators,  their  states- 
men were  enamoured  of  the  completest  intellectual 
liberty.  'T  is  the  rare  credit  of  the  party.  Vane 
was  the  parliamentary  advocate  of  this  grand  fim- 
damental  truth,  the  hardest  to  learn,  and  the  most 
necessary.  Cromwell  was  its  champion  in  the  field ; 
Milton  was  its  knight-errant  in  the  domain  of  let- 
ters. 

In  September,  1643,  the  commissioners  returned 
from  Scotland  with  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant. 
The  ParUament  immediately  referred  it  to  the  West- 
minster divines,*  who  were  then  discussing  the  doc- 
trinal Articles  of  the  church  of  England.     By  this 
time  the  few  Episcopal  divines  who  had  appeared 
had  seceded,  leaving  to  their  opponents  a  clear 
field.t    All  other  questions  w^ere  at  once  adjourned, 
and  the  Assembly  opened  a  debate  upon  the  Arti- 
cles of  Confederation.     The  Independents  disliked 
several  of  the  clauses  of  the  Covenant ;  but  the  im- 
perious necessities  of  the  state  overbore  all  opposi- 
tion, and  the  document  was  shortly  voted  by  the 
Assembly  and  by  both  houses  of  Parliament,  arti- 
cle by  article,  "each  person  standing  uncovered, 
with  right  hand  uplifted.    A  prayer  concluded  the 

o  BailUe's  Lettesp  ;  Burnet,  Pari.  Hist, 
t  Bumet,  Neale,  Clarendon. 


FIGHT  FOR  TOLERATION. 


331 


solemnity ;  after  which  the  Commons  went  up  into 
the  chancel,  and  subscribed  their  names  in  one  roll 
of  parchment,  whither  they  were  followed  by  the 
Assembly,  who  subscribed  theirs  in  another,  in  both 
which  the  Covenant  was  fairly  transcribed."* 

An  oath  to  support  the  union  was  enforced  in 
Scotland  by  the  severest  penalties  ;t  and  in  Eng- 
land it  was  required  of  all  over  eighteen  years  of 
age,  the  punishment  for  non-compliance  being  cita- 
tion before  the  House  of  Commons  and  disfran- 
chisement. J 

This  done,  the  Assembly  dispatched  letters  to 
the  Protestant  churches  in  France,  in  Switzerland, 
and  in  the  Netherlands,  reciting  their  recent  action, 
and  requesting  the  sympathy  of  their  coreHgionists.§ 
And  this  was  followed  by  a  counter-appeal  to  foreign 
Protestantism  by  the  king.ll 

From  this  time  the  dissolution  of  the  Establish- 
ment may  be  dated ;  or  if  not  the  dissolution,  then 
the  trance;  for  it  slept  without  awaking  through 
eighteen  years.  There  were  no  ecclesiastical  courts, 
no  visitations,  no  habits,  no  ceremonies,  not  even 
the  Prayer-book  itself.  The  Assembly  of  divines, 
sittmg,  as  had  the  old  convocations,  during  the  en- 
tire session  of  Parliament,  passed  all  church  busi- 
ness through  their  hands ;  the  parishes  elected  their 
ministers,  the  Assembly  examined  and  approved 


•  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  68. 

f  Chambers,  vol.  1,  chap.  12.     Baillie's  Letters. 

t  Clarendon,  Hume,  Neale,  Burnet 

§  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  72,  73. 


[|  Ibid. 


332 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


them,  and  Parliament  confirmed  them  in  their  ben- 
efices. It  was  to  Westminster  that  petitioners  for 
sequestered  livings  also  resorted.* 

But  though  the  Westminster  Assembly  contin- 
ued its  sessions  until  the  establishment  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, in  its  last  years  it  dwindled  away  in 
point  of  numbers,  sank  in  public  estimation,  and 
declined  in  reputation  and  influence.t  The  open- 
ing months  of  its  existence  were  its  busiest.  In 
1646  the  Confession  of  Faith  was  completed;  the 
doctrinal  part  of  which  the  Parliament  adopted,  re- 
jecting the  discipline.  At  that  time  also  the  Larger 
Catechism,  for  exposition  in  the  pulpit,  and  the 
Shorter  Catechism,  for  the  instruction  of  children, 
were  prepared.  J 

But  the  famous  debate  on  toleration  took  place 
within  thirty  days  after  the  subscription  of  the  Cov- 
enant. 

The  Presbyterians,  usurping  the  discarded  pre- 
rogatives of  the  Episcopal  bench,  shackled  the 
press,  interfered  with  the  civil  rights  of  the  people, 
and  pressed  conformity  with  their  creed  ;§  so  that 
England  had  first  a  single  pope,  at  Bome,  then  a 
bench  of  popes,  the  bishops,  and  finally  an  Assembly 
of  popes,  at  Westminster. 

Besides,  the  absurdity  was  seen  of  men  who  had 
just  beer  oaiting  down  the  prelates  as  persecutors, 
now,  w  .heir  own  prosperity,  proving  the  hollow- 


•  Nt  Je,  vol.  2,  pp.  74,  75. 

I  y  -litelocke,  Memoritils,  etc. 

§  Ixume,  Clarendon,  Neale,  Guizot,  etc.* 


t  Stoughton,  p.  183, 


FIGHT  FOB  TOLERATION. 


333 


ness  of  their  former  protests  by  enacting  the  same 
role.  Vane  protested,  Cromwell  stormed,  Milton 
argued  and  satirized  by  turns,*  addressing  to  the 
Parliament  the  noblest  plea  for  an  unshackled  press 
ever  penned  or  uttered,  and  addressing  to  the  peo- 
ple his  caustic  comment, 

"  New  presbyter  is  but  old  priest  wbit  iabge." 

There  were  but  five  Independents  in  the  Assem- 
bly ;t  but  these  were  men  of  rare  ability  and  active 
eloquence ;  so  that,  reinforced  by  the  scholarship, 
the  genius,  and  the  zeal  of  their  party  outside  of 
Westminster,  they  contrived  to  make  themselves 
felt  and  heard. 

"  The  divines  had  at  first  met  in  Westminster 
chapel.  The  coolness  of  that  spacious  edifice  was 
pleasant  in  the  summer  months ;  but  when  the  win- 
ter cold  came  on,  the  Assembly  adjourned  to  the 
Jerusalem  chamber,  whose  plain  architecture  was 
more  in  harmony  with  the  Puritans  than  the  florid 
gothic  of  the  chapel  they  had  left.  This,  according 
to  the  old  chronicler  Fabian,  supported  by  Shak- 
speare,  was  the  death-scene  of  Henry  IV. 

"  Bomance  and  poetry  have  thus  thrown  their 
rainbow  hues  over  the  room ;  but  far  nobler  associ- 
ations are  linked  with  it  when  it  is  remembered  as 
the  spot  where  the  advocates  of  religious  liberty 
stood  and  fought  one  of  their  earliest  battles.     The 

♦  Prose  Works.     See  also  Milton's  Life,  Am.  Tract  Soc,  1866. 

f  Their  names  were,  Nye,  Burroughs,  Bridge,  Greenhill,  and 
Carter.  Newell,  p.  269.  Nye  and  Burroughs  were  the  Luther 
and  the  Melancthon  of  the  little  band. 


334         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 

dying  Harry,  preyented  from  accomplishing  his 
wished-for  crusade  to  Palestine,  is  a  picture  of  no 
mean  interest ;  but  it  pales  before  the  scene  of  those 
five  brave  ones  who  contended  for  the  claims  of  God 
and  the  rights  of  man,  and  carried  on  a  moral  cru- 
sade against  those  who  had  usurped  the  holy  land 
of  conscience."* 

The  two  parties  joined  battle  on  the/w5  divinum 
of  Presbyterianism.  When  the  Assembly  decided 
yes,  the  Independents  protested.t  But  the  debate 
grew  still  sharper  when  the  Assembly  proposed  to 
enforce  by  civil  penalties  their  rigid  code.  "  No," 
said  the  Independents,  "by  God's  command  the 
magistrate  .is  discharged  to  put  the  least  discour- 
tesy on  any  man,  Turk,  Jew,  Papist,  Socinian,  or 
whatever,  for  his  religion."^ 

This  was  something  "  new  under  the  sun."  Men 
had  pleaded  and  died  for  their  own  faith;  but  these 
heroes  leaped  beyond  them.  Braver  than  Cran- 
mer,  broader  than  Cartwright,  they  were  not  satis- 
fied with  freedom  for  themselves ;  they  demanded 
it  for  the  human  race. 

Nor  was  this  the  offspring  of  indifference.  They 
were  not  doubting  Thomases  or  careless  Gallios. 
They  hated  error,  they  abhorred  sin;  but  tJiey 
made  a  distinction  which  their  brother  Puritans 
did  not.  "  Let  even  the  erring  ones  in  these  happy 
days  remain  untouched  by  law,  unharmed  by  civil 

•  Stoughton.       •  t  ibi^.,  p,  175^  ^t  g^q 

t  Quoted  fi-om  a  pamphlet  by  John  Goodwin,  a  famous  Inde- 
pendent, to  whom  BaiUie  refers  in  his  Letters. 


FIGHT  FOB  TOLERATION. 


335 


penalties,"  they  pleaded.  "  What,"  asked  the  Pres- 
byterians, "will  you  then  tolerate  error,  adopt 
schism,  and  banquet  Komanism?"  "No,  broth- 
ers," was  the  reply,  "  we  are  foes  to  error  as  much 
as  you;  most  intolerant  are  we  of  all  that  invades 
Christ's  empire  to  disturb  its  peace ;  but  in  con- 
quering error,  we  must  not  employ  any  weapons 
which  God  has  forbidden ;  and  *  the  weapons  of  our 
warfare  are  not  carnal.'  "* 

Though  outvoted  and  shouted  down  in  the  As- 
sembly, the  champions  of  toleration  became  popu- 
lar in  the  street  and  in  the  Commons.  The  decision 
of  the  divines  on  the  jus  divimim  of  Presbyterianism 
was  modified  by  Parliament,  which  also  refused 
to  alienate  the  poicer  of  the  keys  in  ecclesiastical 
offences.t  Thus  barred  by  the  authoritative  veto 
of  "  the  powers  that  be"  from  enforcing  their  prin- 
ciples by  the  sword,  the  Presbyterians  never  suc- 
ceeded in  nationalising  their  ecclesiasticism.  Nor 
did  they  forgive  the  party  which  had  balked  them 
of  success,  and  which  ere  long  supplanted  them  in 
power,  t 

*  This  whole  debate  is  admirably  summarized  by  Stoughton, 
pp.  160-183.  't  Hallam,  Neale,  Burnet,  Hume, 

t  Newell,  p.  270 ;  Whitelocke,  Memorials,  etc ;  Neale,  vol.  2. 


336         HISTORY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


THOROUGH. 


337 


CHAPTEE  XXV. 


THOROUGH. 


From  the  year  1644  forward,  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Commonwealth,  events  jostled  and 
elbowed  each  other.  Change  succeeded  change, 
growth  succeeded  growth.  In  civil  wars,  that  party 
which  is  buoyed  up  by  enthusiasm  and  has  a  pur- 
pose, is  sure  to  control  the  present  and  to  mould 
the  future.  The  men  who  sit,  like  the  figure  on  our 
coin,  with  their  heads  turned  back,  are  pressed  by 
revolutionary  gravitation  into  the  grave  of  the  past. 
Live  growths  rive  dead  matter. 

The  English  rebellion  of  1641  illustrates  this. 
Every  day  the  Thorough  party  gained  in  influence 
and  prestige.  There  were  many  changes  in  the 
Parliament.  Old  leaders  were  dead,  or  shelved. 
Bedford  was  an  apostate;  Pym  had  been  borne 
with  princely  honors  to  a  grave  among  the  Plan- 
tagenets.  Vane,  ardent,  resolute,  uncompromising, 
began  to  shape  the  time  in  a  republican  model.* 

So  in  the  army.  Essex  and  his  lieutenants, 
mere  holiday  warriors,  dilettante  soldiers,  were 
pushed  from  their  camp-stools ;  Cromwell  and  Ire- 
ton  marshalled  Britain  to  a  higher  struggle ;  and 
as  the  nation  was  more  in  earnest,  so  its  leaders 

<»  Macanley,  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  1,  p.  91. 


at  the  council-board  and  in  the  field  were  seen 
to  be. 

Cromwell's  rise  was  as  remarkable  as  it  was 
rapid.  "  Bred  to  peaceful  occupations,  he  had,  at 
more  than  forty  years  of  age,  accepted  a  colonel's 
commission  in  the  parliamentary  army.  No  sooner 
had  he  become  a  soldier,  than  he  discovered,  with 
the  keen  eye  of  genius,  what  Essex  and  men  like 
Essex,  with  all  their  experience,  were  unable  to 
perceive.  He  saw  precisely  where  the  strength  of 
the  royalists  lay,  and  by  what  means  alone  that 
strength  could  be  overpowered.  He  saw  that  it 
was  necessary  to  reconstruct  the  army  of  the  Par- 
liament. At  the  outset  their  ranks  had  been  filled 
with  hirelings  whom  want  and  idleness  had  induced 
to  enhst — the  usual  element  of  the  rank  and  file  of 
armies.  Hampden's  regiment  had  been  considered 
one  of  the  best,  yet  he  described  it  as  a  mere  rab- 
ble of  tapsters  and  serving-men  out  of  place. 

"The  Cavaliers  were  gentlemen,  high-spirited, 
ardent,  accustomed  to  the  use  of  arms,  to  bold 
riding,  and  to  perilous  sport — the  image  of  war. 
Mounted  on  their  favorite  horses,  and  commanding 
little  bands  composed  of  their  younger  brothers, 
their  game-keepers,  their  huntsmen,  they  w^ere  per- 
fectly qualified  for  guerilla  warfare.  The  steadi- 
ness, the  prompt  obedience,  the  mechanical  precis- 
ion of  movement,  which  are  characteristic  of  the 
regular  soldier,  these  gallant  volunteers  never  at- 
tained. But  they  were  at  first  opposed  to  enemies 
as  undisciplined  as  themselves,  and  far  less  active, 


rnrltnna. 


15 


k 


338 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


\ 


THOROUGH. 


339 


athletic,  and  daring.  For  a  time  therefore  the 
Cavaliers  were  successful  in  almost  every  en- 
counter. 

"  Cromwell  changed  all  this.  He  saw  that  an 
army  might  be  built  out  of  materials  less  showy 
indeed,  but  more  solid  than  those  of  which  the 
dashing  squadrons  of  the  king  were  composed.  It 
was  necessary  to  look  for  recruits  who  were  not 
mere  mercenaries,  for  recruits  of  decent  station  and 
grave  character,  fearing  God  and  zealous  for  lib- 
erty. With  such  men  he  filled  his  own  regiment ; 
and  while  he  subjected  them  to  a  disciphne  more 
rigid  than  had  ever  before  been  known  in  England, 
he  administered  to  their  intellectual  and  moral  na- 
ture stimulants  of  fearful  potency."* 

Time  passed;  the  Parliament  gradually  entrust- 
ed more  and  more  power  to  their  great  captain. 
The  army  was  remodelled  and  made  over  into  the 
image  of  the  "  Ironsides "  squadron.  Fairfax,  a 
brave  soldier,  became  the  nominal  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  popular  forces;  but  Cromwell's  were 
the  keener  eye,  the  cooler  brain,  and  stouter  arm 
which  virtually  presided  at  the  helm. 

Then  the  Parliament  swept  on  from  success  to 
success.  The  reconstructed  army  moved  to  victory 
with  the  precision  of  machines,  while  burning  with 
the  wild  fanaticism  of  crusaders.  Every  soldier 
had  a  double  life.  In  camp  he  was  a  field-preacher 
perhaps,  or  a  politician.  If  the  first,  he  would  lead 
the  devotions  of  the  men,  and  admonish  a  back- 

*  Macauley,  ut  antea. 


eliding  major  or  colonel.  If  the  second,  he  would 
head  a  club,  elect  delegates,  and  pass  resolutions. 
But  in  the  heat  of  battle  he  became  a  simple  sol- 
dier, obedient,  inflexible,  rigid. 

It  was  this  double  life,  this  rare  union  of  poht- 
ical  and  rehgious  enthusiasm,  with  perfect  organi- 
zation and  subordination,  which  gave  Cromwell's 
army  its  irresistibility.  It  was  at  once  a  church 
and  a  camp,  an  incarnate  sermon  and  a  warlike 
thunderbolt. 

And  it  never  met  an  enemy  which  could  with- 
stand its  onset.  "In  England,  Scotland,  Ireland, 
Flanders,  the  Puritan  warriors,  often  surrounded 
by  difficulties,  sometimes  contending  against  three- 
fold odds,  not  only  never  failed  to  conquer,  but 
never  failed  to  destroy  whatever  force  opposed 
them.  They  at  length  came  to  regard  the  day  of 
battle  as  a  day  of  certain  triumph,  and  marched 
against  the  most  renowned  battalions  of  Europe 
with  disdainful  confidence.  Turenne  was  startled 
by  the  shout  of  stern  exultation  with  which  his 
English  allies  advanced  to  the  combat,  and  ex- 
pressed the  delight  of  a  true  soldier  when  he 
learned  that  it  was  ever  the  custom  of  Cromwell's 
pikemen  to  rejoice  greatly  when  they  beheld  the 
enemy ;  and  the  banished  Cavaliers  felt  an  emotion 
of  national  pride  when  they  saw  a  brigade  of  their 
Puritan  countrymen,  outnumbered  by  foes  and 
abandoned  by  allies,  drive  before  it  in  headlong 
rout  the  finest  infantry  of  Spain,  and  force  a  pas- 
sage into  a  counterscarp  which  had  just  been  pro- 


340 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


nounced  impregnable  by  the  ablest  marshals  of 
France."* 

Baxter  confirms  this  account,  and,  since  he  was 
with  the  army,  his  testimony  is  conclusive:  "Many, 
yea,   the   generality  of  those   people   throughout 
England  who  went  by  the  name  of  Puritans,  who 
followed  sermons,  prayed  in  their  families,  read 
books  of  devotion,  and  were  strict  observers  of  the 
Sabbath,  being  avowed  enemies  to  swearing,  drunk- 
enness, and  all  profaneness,  adhered  to  the  Parlia- 
ment, and  filled  up  their  armies  afterwards,  because 
they  heard  the  king's  soldiers  with  horrid  oaths 
abuse  the  name  of  God,  and  saw  them  living  in 
debauchery,  while  the  Parhament  soldiers  flocked 
to  sermons,  talked  of  religion,  prayed  and  sung 
psalms  together  on  guards.     And  all  sober  men  of 
my  acquaintance  who    opposed   the   Parliament, 
used  to  say,  *  The  king  has  the  best  cause,  but  the 
Parliament  has  the  best  men.'  "t 

Under  Cromwell's  regime  the  war  did  not  long 
hang  doubtful.  Marston  Moor  shattered  the  royal 
strength ;  Naseby  gave  the  king's  cause  its  coup  de 
grace.  In  the  winter  of  1646  the  last  fortress  of  the 
Cavaliers  succumbed.:]: 

But  while  peace  was  being  conquered  in  the 
field,  momentous  events  were  occurring  at  the  cap- 
ital and  in  the  Parliament. 

In  1645,  Laud  was  executed,  the  penalty  of  his 
impeachment  and  conviction  of  high-treason.   Pos- 

o  Macanley,  ut  antea.  f  Baxter's  Life  and  Times. 

t  Carlyle,  Hume,  Clarendon,  etc. 


THOKOUGH. 


341 


terity  cries  "Amen"  to  this  sentence,  but  it  ab- 
solves the  primate  from  the  stigma  of  Bomanism. 
"  However,"  remarks  Fuller,  "  most  apparent  it  is, 
by  several  passages  in  his  life,  that  he  endeavored 
to  take  up  many  controversies  between  us  and  the 
church  of  Bome,  so  as  to  compromise  the  differ- 
ence, and  to  bring  us  to  a  vicinity,  if  not  contiguity 
therewith ;  an  impossible  design,  if  granted  lawful, 
as  some,  every  way  his  equals,  did  adjudge.  For 
composition  is  impossible  with  such  who  will  not 
agree,  except  all  they  sue  for  and  all  the  charges 
of  their  suit  be  to  the  utmost  farthing  awarded 
unto  them.  Our  reconciliation  with  Bome  is  clog- 
ged with  the  same  impossibilities  :  she  may  he  gone 
to,  but  will  never  he  met  luith ;  such  her  pride  or 
peevishness  as  not  to  stir  a  step  to  obviate  any  of 
a  different  religion.  Bome  will  never  unpope  itself 
so  far  as  to  part  with  its  pretended  supremacy  and 
infallibility,  which  cuts  off  all  possibility  of  Protes- 
tants' treaty  with  lier."^ 

Parliament  through  these  years  was  very  busy. 
Some  of  its  acts  were  good,  some  bad,  some  mixed. 
Bigid  Presbyterianism  was  in  the  saddle,  so  that 
many  of  the  ordinances  now  put  forth  squinted 
towards  the  settlement  of  the  church  down  into  the 
"fixed  ways"  of  that  discipline.t  To  recite  even 
the  chief  of  those  acts  which  wear  the  countenance 
of  an  ecclesiastical  tendency,  would  swell  these 
pages  into  volumes.  Indeed  Sir  Simons  D'Ewes 
affirms  that  the  religious  laws  of  the  Long  Parlia- 

•  Fuller,  voL  3,  p.  4:75.  f  Baxter,  Guizot,  Neale,  etc 


342        HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

merit  exceed  in  number  and  bulk  all  the  statutes 
made  before  that  time  since  the  Conquest.* 

Very  early  in  the  contest  Parliament  repealed 
the  anti-sabbatarian  legislation  of  the  past,  and 
enacted  a  law  compelHng  the  decent  observance  of 
the  day.t  "Sunday,"  says  Neale,  "was  observed 
with  remarkable  strictness,  the  churches  being 
crowded  with  numerous  attentive  hearers  three  or 
four  times  a  day ;  the  officers  of  the  peace  patrolled 
the  streets,  and  shut  up  all  ale-houses;  there  was 
no  travelling  on  the  road  nor  walking  in  the  fields, 
except  in  cases  of  necessity.  Kehgious  exercises 
were  set  up  in  private  families,  as  reading  the 
Scriptures,  prayer,  repetition  of  sermons,  and  sing- 
ing of  psalms,  which  was  so  universal  that  one 
might  walk  through  the  city  of  London  on  the 
evening  of  the  Lord's  day  without  seeing  an  idle 
person,  or  hearing  any  thing  but  the  voice  of  prayer 
or  praise  from  churches" and  private  houses. "J 

In  1646  the  Parliament  abolished  the  offices 
and  titles  of  bishops  and  archbishops  throughout 
England  and  Wales,  and  appropriated  their  reve- 
nues to  the  discharge  of  the  national  debt.§  This 
reduced  very  many  excellent  clergymen  from  afflu- 
ence to  beggary,  bishops  Usher,  Morton,  and  Hall 
being  among  the  sufferers;  and  though  the  two 
Houses  voted  them  very  considerable  pensions,  in 
lieu  of  theii*  lands  thus  sequestered,  due  care  was 

«  D'Ewes  ;  cited  in  Fuller,  vol.  3,  p.  490. 

t  Pari.  Hist.  ;  Whitelocke,  Clarendon. 

I  Neale,  voL  2,  p.  23.  §  Pari.  Hist.  ;  NeweU,  etc 


THOROUGH. 


343 


/ 


Bot  taken  to  secure  prompt  payment;  nor  would 
several  of  the  deprived  prelates  so  far  countenance 
the  votes  of  Parliament  as  to  apply  for  this  prof- 
fered aid.* 

Indeed  the  clergy  on  both  sides  suffered  terribly 
from  the  calamities  incident  to  the  times.  Where 
the  king  encamped,  the  Cavaliers,  incensed  against 
the  Puritan  preachers  as  the  trumpeters  of  the  re- 
bellion, searched  out  their  residences,  plundering, 
harassing,  and  imprisoning  with  indiscriminate  zeal. 
Where  the  Parliament  hung  out  its  banners,  even 
the  iron  discipline  of  Cromwell  could  not  check  the 
insults  and  spoliation  which  awaited  the  Episcopal 
clergy  and  their  sympathizers,  whom  the  Eound- 
heads  termed  "  malignants."  No  servant-girl  com- 
plained of  their  rough  gallantry.  Not  an  ounce  of 
plate  was  taken  from  the  shops  of  the  goldsmiths. 
But  a  Pelagian  sermon,  or  a  window  in  which  the 
Virgin  and  child  were  painted,  stirred  riot  and  pro- 
voked a  raid.t 

Another  source  of  suffering  and  sorrow  was  the 
large  number  of  sequestered  clergymen,  men  de- 
prived of  their  livings  ostensibly  on  account  of 
their  scandalous  lives— avouched  often  by  the  oaths 
of  witnesses  proved  insufficient  or  malicious— but 
really  because  Presbyterianism  hungered  for  their 
benefices.^  But  Parliament  had  the  grace  to  award 
a  fifth  part  of  the  revenues  of  the  sequestered  liv- 
ings to  the  ejected  clergymen  for  the  maintenance 


o  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  49. 

t  Ibid. ;  Macauley,  Carlyle. 


Jlbid. 


/ 


344:        HISTORY  OP  THE  lIURITANS. 

of  their  families,*  "  wliicli  was  a  Christian  act,"  says 
Fuller,  "  and  one  which  I  should  have  been  glad  to 
have  seen  imitated  at  the  Kestoration.  But  mod- 
erate men  bemoaned  these  severities,  for  as  much 
corruption  was  let  out  by  these  ejectments,  many 
scandalous  ministers  being  deservedly  punished,  so 
at  the  same  time  the  veins  of  the  English  church 
were  also  emptied  of  much  good  blood."t 

In  the  mean  time  Charles,  fairly  expelled  from 
England  by  the  prowess  of  Cromwell,  had  crossed 
the  Tweed,  and  surrendered  his  person  into  the 
hands  of  the  Scotch.  Here  he  was  held  in  honor- 
able captivity,  while  the  Parliament  was  apprized  of 
the  event.J 

The  king  began  at  once  to  intrigue:  he  em- 
ployed every  wile  known  to  his  Jesuitical  diplomacy 
to  detach  the  Covenanters  from  the  English  alli- 
ance; he  endeavored  to  cajole  the  Scots  into  the 
conclusion  of  a  private  treaty.  But  his  efforts  were 
vain.§  He  closely  scrutinized  the  behavior  of  the 
Presbyterian  ministers  towards  himself,  knowing 
well  their  omnipotent  influence  in  Scotland.  He 
did  not  get  much  consolation  from  them.  One 
preacher  reproached  him  to  his  face  with  his  mis- 
government,  and  on  concluding  his  sermon  read 
this  psalm  : 

"Why  dost  thou,  tyrant,  boast  thyself, 
Thy  wicked  deeds  to  praise  ?" 

o  Neale,  toI.  2,  pp.  49,  95 ;  Newell,  FiiUer,  Clarendon, 
t  Fuller's  Worthies.  J  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  334, 

§  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  205. 


THOEOUGH. 


345 


The  king  rose  and  called  for  that  other  psalm  which 
begins  thus : 

"Have  mercy.  Lord,  on  me,  I  pray, 
For  men  would  me  devour." 

The  good-natured  audience,  in  pity  to  fallen  maj- 
esty, showed  for  once  greater  deference  to  the  king 
than  to  the  minister,  and  sang  the  hymn  which 
Charles  requested.''^ 

Posts  hurried  to  and  fro  between  London  and 
Scotland,  when  news  came  that  the  king  had  taken 
asylum  in  the  north ;  negotiation  ensued,  and  even- 
tually Charles  w^as  delivered  to  the  Parliament.t 

Comj)laisant  Presbyterianism  rubbed  its  hands. 
The  king  was  its  prisoner;  the  best  livings  in  Eng- 
land yielded  it  support;  Parhament  was  its  mouth- 
piece. But  one  thing  remained — its  indissoluble 
marriage  with  the  civil  authority  ;J  and  all  was  pre- 
pared for  this,  when  lo,  Cromwell  entered  and  for- 
bade the  bans. 

The  army  was  wedded  to  the  Independent  ten- 
ets.§  It  had  long  fretted  at  the  evident  gravitation 
of  ihe  Parhament  towards  intolerant  Presbyterian- 
ism. It  had  growled  when  it  was  proposed  to  na- 
tionalize any  creed.    It  favored  the  tole^ration  of  all 

evangelical  sects. 

Now,  in  opposition  to  the  Parliament  at  West- 
minster, a  military  parliament  was  held  in  the 
camp ;  the  army  was  represented  in  this  upon  re- 

*  Hume,  ut  antea.  t  Hume,  Clarendon,  Burnet 

X  Neale,  voL  2,  p.  208. 

§  Walker,  Hist,  of  Independency,  pt.  2  ;  Carlyle. 

15* 


ai6 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


publican  principles.  The  king  was  seized  by  Crom- 
well's order.  That  great  soldier  was  elected  gene- 
ralissimo, and  the  troops  started  for  London.  Di- 
plomacy failed  to  stay  their  march ;  and  despite  the 
protest  of  the  Parliament  and  the  belligerent  atti- 
tude of  Scotland,  Cromwell  entered  the  metropoHs, 
quartered  his  regiments  yi  Whitehall  and  the  Meuse, 
and  placed  the  government  beneath  his  warriors' 
heels. ^ 

This  military  coup  de  etat  broke  the  back  of  the 
haughty  Presbyterian  majority  in  the  Commons. 
They  still  possessed  the  forms  of  authority,  but  they 
knew  that  from  that  moment  the  army  was  the  real 
arbiter  of  the  island. 

*  Hume,  Tol.  2,  chs.  58,  59,  passim ;  Harris'  Cromwell,  etc. 


THE  SCAFFOLD. 


347 


CHAPTEE  XXVI. 

THE  SCAFFOLD  AT  WHITEHALL. 

ChaKLES  I.  digged  his  own  grave  by  perfidy. 
He  was  given  at  least  two  opportunities  to  regain 
the  lost  sceptre,  once  by  Cromwell,  once  by  Parlia- 
ment. His  political  Jesuitism  balked  every  plan 
for  an  accommodation.  To  such  an  extent  had 
insincerity  now  tainted  his  whole  nature,  that  his 
most  devoted  friends  could  not  refrain  from  com- 
plaining to  each  other,  witb  bitter  grief  and  shame, 
of  his  crooked  politics. 

Immediately   after  his   seizure  by  the    army, 
Cromwell    had   several    interviews   with    Charles. 
The  king  attempted  with  the  great  captain  what 
he  tried  successively  with  every  section  of  the  vic- 
torious Eoundheads,  to  undermine  him  by  cajolery 
and  by  machinations.     The  officers  offered  to  guar- 
antee Charles  the  throne,  with  Hberty  of  conscience 
in  Episcopacy,  provided  he  would  consent  to  toler- 
ation,  and  govern  by  the  law  f   and  this  liberal 
proposition  the  crazy  king  defeated  by  mtrigue. 
In  the  very  midst  of  this  effort  at  reconciliation,  a 
secret  correspondence  between  the  king  and  the 
queen  was  discovered,  in  which  Charles  freely  open- 
ed his  false  heart.    It  was  clearly  shown  that  though 
pubUcly  recognizing  the' houses  at  Westminster  as 

*  Carlyle's  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches,  volume  1 ;  Neale, 
Harris,  Macauley. 


348 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


a  legal  Parliament,  lie  had  at  the  same  time  made 
a  private  minute  in  council,  declaring  the  recognition 
null;  that  though  publicly  disclaiming  all  thought 
of  calling  in  foreign  aid  against  his  people,  he  had 
privately  solicited  aid  from  France,  from  Denmark, 
and  from  Lorraine ;  that  though  publicly  denying 
that  he  employed  Papists,  he  bade  his  friends  en- 
list every  Papist  who  would  serve ;  that  though  pub- 
Ucly  taking  the  sacrament  at  Oxford,  as  a  pledge 
that  he  never  would  connive  at  Popery,  he  privately 
assured  his  wife  that  he  intended  to  tolerate  Popery 
in  England,  and  that  he  actually  authorized  Lord 
Glamorgan  to  promise  that  Popery  should  be  estab; 
lished  in  Ireland ;  and  that  though  now  plausibly 
treating  with  the  army,  he  was  really  plotting  Crom- 
well's overthrow,  and  cementing  a  private  treaty 
with  the  Scots.* 

In  anger  and  disgust,  the  long-headed  soldier 
quitted  the  presence  of  the  perjured  monarch,  fully 
convinced  that  either  Charles  must  die  or  that  mid- 
night stabbers  would  deprive  both  himself  and  the 
newly  acquired  public  libei*ty  of  existence.f 

Cromwell  told  his  royal  prisoner  that  he  would 
no  longer  be  responsible  for  his  safety.  Charles 
t^jok  the  hint.  Mounting  his  charger  at  midnight, 
in  1647,  he  stole  from  Hampton  Court,  and  hurry- 
ing across  the  country,  sought  an  asylum,  but  found 
a  prison,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight.. "f 

m 

*  Macaiiley,  Hist,  of  Eng.  ;  Neale,  Hanis,  Hume,  CLueudon. 
t  Carlyle's  Cromwell's  Letters,  etc. 
X  Harris,  life  of  Charles  I.  ;  Neale. 


THE  SCAFFOLD. 


349 


At  London  the  Presbyterians,  overawed  by  the 
army,  made  no  open  move ;  but  couriers  were  dis- 
patched into  Scotland  with  letters  couched  in  words 
of  bitter  complaint.  Unbounded  liberty  of  con- 
science, which  the  Covenanters  held  in  the  utmost 
abhorrence,  was  enforced,  they  said ;  and  the  Cov- 
enant itself  was  pronounced  in  the  house,  by  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Commons,  to  be  "  an  almanac  out  of 
date."* 

Scottish  Presbyterianism,  influenced  by  these 
appeals  from  the  coerced  members,  who  formed  the 
parliamentary  majority  in  England,  and  in  execu- 
tion of  the  treaty  entered  into  with  the  king,  began 
to  arm  for  the  delivery  of  the  subdued  Parliament 
and  for  the  reinstatement  of  the  royal  captive. t 

Instantly  the  army  quitted  the  capital,  and 
marched  to  meet  the  Scots.  J  Then  the  Parliament 
regained  courage  ;  it  commenced  negotiations  with 
Charles ;  politicians  with  their  diplomacy,  theolo- 
gians with  their  syllogisms,  invaded  the  Isle  of 
Wight.§  Now  again  Charles'  obstinacy  defeated 
every  scheme.  Strangely  impressed  with  his  own 
importance,!!  he  would  make  no  decided  concessions, 
but  seemed  desirous  to  await  the  course  of  events. 
The  ParHament,  on  their  part,  though  anxious  to 
conclude  a  pacification  ere  the  army  should  again 
return  to  domineer,  still  would  assent  to  no  plan 


*  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  348. 

f  Chambers,  Rebellions  iii  Scotland ;  Pari.  Hist.  ;  Carlyle. 
t  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  348.  §  Ibid.,  p.  350. 

II  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  238. 


350 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THE  SCAFFOLD. 


351 


which  did  not  include  the  denial  of  toleration  and 
the  establishment  of  Presbyterianism.* 

These  negotiations  were  still  pending  when  the 
army,  triumphant  everywhere,  returned  to  London, 
and  the  dawdlers  at  the  Isle  of  Wight  learned  too 
late  that  they  had  lost  the  golden  moment.  The 
Independents  were  provoked  at  the  bad  faith  of  the 
Parliament  in  negotiating  with  the  king  in  their 
absence,  and  they  began  to  threaten.t  Parliament 
meantime  attempted,  in  the  face  of  the  army,  to 
close  a  treaty  with  the  king  ]X  whereupon  Cromwell 
seized  the  most  prominent  members  of  the  Presby- 
terian majority  en  route  to  Westminster,  excluded 
one  hundred  and  sixty  of  the  Commons  from  their 
seats,  threw  the  legislative  authority  into  the  hands 
of  threescore  Independents,  and  thus  *^  purged  the 
house."§ 

Then  came  the  final  scene.  The  king  was  seized, 
brought  to  London,  and  the  "  rump  Parliameut,"  as 
it  was  nicknamed,  voted  his  impeachment.  The 
Lords  said,  No ;  their  house  was  closed.ll  The  peo- 
ple were  declared  to  be  the  source  of  all  just  power. 
Of  this  idea  was  born  a  popular  tribunal,  before 
which  Charles  Stuart  was  arraigned,  tried,  convict- 
ed, and  sentenced  as  a  tyrant,  hostis  humani  generis.% 
In  front  of  the  banqueting-hall  of  his  own  palace 
at  Whitehall,  the  unhappy  monarch  lost  his  head. 


^4 


*  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  351.  f  I^i^»  P-  354. 

§  Ibid.,  p.  354 ;  Pari.  Hist. 
II  Macauley,  Hist  England,  vol.  1,  p.  99. 
IT  Carlyle,  Hume,  Harris,  Clarendon,  etc. 


X  Ibid. 


Liberty,  dipping  her  finger  in  his  blood,  counter- 
signed the  verdict ;  then  turning  to  dazed  Europe, 
she  wrote  upon  the  frontlet  of  the  nascent  Com- 
monwealth her  simple  motto :  "  Kesistance  to  ty- 
rants is  obedience  to  God." 

Various  were  the  comments.     The  Cavaliers, 

"Whose  phrase  of  sorrow 
Conjured  the  wandering  stars,  and  made  them  stand 
Like  wonder-wounded  hearers," 

embalmed  the  dead  king's  memory  in  their  heart 
of  hearts.  Charles  became  that  most  dangerous  of 
things,  a  sentiment.  The  Presbyterians,  some  on 
account  of  their  exclusion  from  the  Commons,  anx- 
ious mainly  to  make  a  point  against  the  hated  In- 
dependents, became 

♦•The  painting  of  a  soitow  ; 
A  face  without  a  heart," 

and  clamored  loudly  in  their  turn  against  the  "mur- 
der" of  the  king.  The  Cromwellians  alone  were 
unmoved.  They  pleaded  necessity,  appealed  to  the 
record,  and  said  sternly.  Sic  semper  tyrannis. 

The  government  was  at  once  new-modelled.  A 
Commonwealth  was  inaugurated.  The  oaths  of 
supremacy  and  allegiance  were  abolished.  All  civil 
officers  were  tendered  an  engagenieiit  which  bound 
them  to  be  true  and  faithful  to  the  de  facto  authori- 
ties.* The  representative  system  was  ably  reform- 
ed ^t  and  as  many  of  the  ousted  Commons  as  would 

*  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  315 ;  Carlyle,  Harris. 

f  Clarendon.     The  manner  in  which  this  was  done  extorts  the 
warm  praise  of  this  old  royalist  historian. 


352 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


sign  tlie  engagement  were  returned  to  the  Parlia- 
ment.* A  constitution  as  perfect  as  any  then  known 
was  framed.  The  executive  authority  was  vested 
in  a  Council  of  State ;  and  England,  emancipated 
from  thraldom  to  a  king,  assumed  the  garb  of  repub- 
licanism, and  declared  the  Commonwealth  to  be  the 
lawful  heir  of  the  dead  monarch. 

Consummate  wisdom  swayed  the  national  coun- 
sels, and  success  awaited  democratic  politics.    Vane, 

♦*  Than  whom  a  better  senator  ne'er  held 
The  helm  of  Kome,  when  gowns,  not  arms,  repelled 
The  fierce  Epirot  and  the  Afran  bold, 
Keen  both  to  settle  peace  and  to  unfold 
The  drift  of  hollow  states,  hard  to  be  spelled," 

became  the  leader  of  the  Commons.     Milton, 
"Dear  son  of  memory,  great  heir  of  fame," 

was  chosen  secretary  of  state;  while  above  all 
loomed  Cromwell. 

But  a  mere  proclamation  did  not  settle  the  new 
Commonwealth.  Conspiracies  were  formed.  The 
army  mutinied.t  These  half-born  emeutes  were  at 
once  strangled ;  and  then,  behold,  another  hostile 
movement  threatened  to  mar  all.  The  Independents 
were  equally  odious  to  the  Eomanists  and  to  the 
Presbyterians.  The  Eomanist  head-quarters  were 
in  Ireland ;  the  Presbyterian  camp  was  in  Scotland. 
Both,  on  the  death  of  the  king,  transferred  their 
allegiance  to  his  eldest  son  Charles  II.J 


etc. 


•  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  315  ;  Guizot ;  Godwin,  Hist.  Commonwealth. 
\  Macauley ;  Guizot,  Cromwell  and  Commonwealth  ;  Godwin, 

I  Guizot's  Cromwell  and  the  Commonwealth. ;  Commons'  Jour. 


THE  SCAFFOLD. 


353 


With  an  energy  which  never  flagged,  the  Puri- 
tan statesmen  met  and  bafiled  this  danger.  Crom- 
well was  sent  into  Ireland  to  reduce  that  turbulent 
province  to  submission.  He  took  with  him  four- 
teen thousand  "Ironsides."  This  army  had  the 
appearance  of  a  camp-meeting.  The  day  before 
embarkation  was  observed  as  a  day  of  fasting  and 
prayer;  Cromwell  himself  expounded  some  parts  of 
Scripture  pertinent  to  the  occasion.  Then  the  ex- 
pedition sailed;  not  an  oath  was  heard,  and  the 
soldiers  spent  their  leisure  hours  in  reading  their 
Bibles,  in  singing  psalms,  and  in  reUgious  confer- 
ences.''^ 

"  Entirely  amazing  to  us  in  these  material  days, 
all  this,"  observes  Carlyle  with  characteristic  quaint- 
ness.  "  These  are  the  longest  heads  and  the  stout- 
est hearts  in  England,  and  this  is  the  thing  they  do ; 
this  is  the  way  they,  for  their  part,  begin  dispatch 
of  business.  The  looker-on  may,  if  he  be  an  earnest 
man,  gaze  with  very  many  thoughts  for  which  there 
is  no  word.  Does  it  look  like  madness  ?  Madness 
lies  close  by,  as  madness  does  to  the  highest  wisdom 
of  man's  life  always;  but  this  is  not  mad.  This 
stern  element,  it  is  the  mother  of  the  Hghtnings  and 

the  splendors."t 

Nothing  could  stay  such  men.  Ireland,  which 
had  never  been  subdued  during  the  five  centuries 
of  slaughter  which  had  elapsed  since  the  landing  of 

o  Guizot,  Cromwell  and  the  Commonwealth ;  Commons'  Jour- 
nal ;  Whitelocke's  Memorials. 

t  Carlyle's  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches,  voL  1,  p.  337. 


354        HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


the  first  Norman  settlers,  was  now  subjugated  by 
these  warUke  saints  in  less  than  a  twelvemonth. 
Cromwell  "resolved  to  put  an  end  to  that  conflict 
of  races  and  creeds  which  had  so  long  distracted 
the  island.  Accordingly  he  gave  loose  reign  to  the 
fierce  enthusiasm  of  his  followers,  waged  war  re- 
sembling that  which  Israel  waged  on  the  Canaan- 
ites,  smote  the  idolaters  with  the  edge  of  the  sword," 
and  supplied  the  void  which  death  had  made  by 
pouring  in  Anglo-Saxon  colonists  of  the  Protestant 
faith.  "  Strange  to  say,  under  this  iron  rule  the 
conquered  country  began  to  wear  an  outward  face 
of  prosperity.  Districts  which  had  recently  been  as 
wild  as  those  where  the  first  white  settlers  of  Con- 
necticut were  contending  with  the  red  men,  were  in 
a  brief  space  transformed  into  the  hkeness  of  Kent 
and  Norfolk.  New  buildings,  new  plantations,  new 
roads,  were  everywhere  seen.  The  rent  of  Irish 
estates  rose  fast,  and  soon  English  land-owners 
began  to  complain  that  they  were  met  in  every 
market  by  the  products  of  the  sister  island,  and  to 
clamor  for  protecting  laws."* 

Having  thus  performed  this  mission,  cruelly, 
wickedly,  but  effectually,  Cromwell  crossed  the 
Irish  sea,  marched  to  London,  reported  to  the 
Council  of  State,  and  then  without  pause  swept  into 
Scotland.  "  The  young  king  was  there.  He  had 
consented  to  profess  himself  a  Presbyterian,  and 

o  Macatdey,  Hist  of  Eng.,  vol.  1,  p.  101.  This  summary  of 
the  great  English  rhetorician  is  amply  substantiated  by  all  other 
authoritative  writers. 


THE  SCAFFOLD. 


355 


to  subscribe  to  the  Covenant;  and  in  return  for 
these  concessions,  the  austere  Puritans  who  bore 
sway  at  Edinburgh  had  permitted  him'  to  hold, 
under  their  inspection  and  control,  a  melancholy 
court  in  the  long  deserted  halls  of  Holyrood.  This 
mock  royalty  was  of  short  duration.  In  two  great 
battles,  Dunbar  and  Worcester,  Cromwell  annihi- 
lated the  military  force  of  Scotland.  Charles,  nar- 
rowly escaping  capture,  skulked  across  the  sea. 
The  ancient  kingdom  of  the  Stuarts  was  reduced, 
for  the  first  time,  to  profound  submission.  Of  that 
independence  so  manfully  defended  against  the 
ablest  and  the  mightiest  of  the  Plantagenets,  no 
vestige  was  left.  The  English  Parhament  made 
laws  for  Scotland;  English  judges  held  assizes 
there.  Even  that  stubborn  church,  which  had  held 
its  own  against  so  many  assailants,  now  scarce 
dared  to  utter  an  audible  murmur."* 

England  wearied  into  peace,  Ireland  subjugated 
into  peace,  Scotland  harried  into  peace,  the  army 
everywhere  successful,  Cromwell  the  hero  of  the 
island — such  was  the  political  situation  at  the  close 
of  1651. 

•  Macauley,  ut  antea. 


I' 


356         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


CHAPTEE  XXVII. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH. 

Under  the  Commonwealtli  toleration  was  broad- 
er tlian  it  bad  ever  before  been  in  the  island.    The 
Covenant  oath  was  discarded  ;  no  other  civil  qual- 
ification was  required  than   the   engagement :   this 
opened  the  doors  of  pohtical  office  ;  it  also  was 
sufficient  to  obtain  any  vacant  benefice  *     Many 
of  the  Episcopal  divines  now  made  their  submis- 
sion to  the  statu  quo.     Thus  they  gained  a  foot- 
hold, a  haH-recognition ;  for  though  they  might  not 
read  the  Liturgy  in  form,  they  were  permitted  to 
frame  their   prayers    as   near  it   as   they  chose. 
Many    Episcopal    assemblies   were    connived    at, 
where  the  Prayer-book  itself  was  used.    But  when 
these  clergymen  were   discovered  to   be  plotters 
against  the  state,  this  liberty  was  suspended.    Still 
it  is  said  that  the  Episcopalians  would  not  have 
been  denied  open  toleration  if  they  had  consented 
to  give  security  for  their  acquiescent  behavior.t 

The  sectaries  were  very  numerous;  and  con- 
temporaneous writers  i:)laced  the  Independents  at 
the  head  of  these,  not  as  having  the  larger  number 
of  disciples,  but  because  they  were  the  most  influ- 
ential, and  on  account  of  their  tolerant  principles, 

o  Godwin,  Hist,  of  the  Commonwealtli ;  Whitelocke. 
t  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  349. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH. 


357 


Cv 


since  they  insisted  upon  granting  perfect  freedom 
of  conscience  to  all  who  agreed  in  the  fundamen- 
tals of  religion,  and  stood  ready  to  fellowship  every 
evangelical  sect.* 

The  Baptists  also  were  a  rising  sect.  In  the 
early  years  of  the  civil  war  they  had  forty-seven 
congregations  in  England.t  Although  the  hand  of 
authority  had  fallen  heavy  upon  them  through  a 
hundred  years,  they  were  w^orthy,  industrious,  de- 
vout, and  peaceable  citizens,  mostly  of  the  middle 
and  lower  classes ;  but  they  could  point  to  several 
of  the  ablest  and  most  learned  ministers  in  Britain 
as  their  coreligionists  and  champions. J 

It  was  under  the  Commonwealth  that  the  soci- 
ety of  Friends  first  acquired  public  fame.§  In  1648, 
George  Fox,  their  most  celebrated  teacher,  began 
to  preach.  He  was  of  humble  birth,  and  being 
attracted  towards  sober  thoughts,  he  devoted  him- 
self to  religion.il  His  chief  tenet  was,  that  "peo- 
ple should  receive  the  inner  teaching  of  the  Spirit 
of  Christ,  and  make  that  a  rule."l    He  taught  that 


*  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  211,  et  seq. ;  Baxter's  Life  and  Times ; 
Whitelocke. 

+  Haynes,  Hist,  of  the  Baptist  Denomination ;  Orchard,  Hist, 
of  Foreign  Baptists  ;  Neale,  vol.  2.  Mr.  Cornwall  of  Emmanuel 
college,  and  Mr.  Toombs,  educated  at  Oxford,  were  accounted 
their  most  learned  men  at  this  time.  ♦*  Their  confession  consisted 
of  fifty-two  articles,  and  was  strictly  Calvinistic  in  the  doctrinal 
part,  and  according  to  the  Independent  discipline."  Neale,  voL 
2,  p.  111.  t  Ibid. 

§  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  332-334;  Sewel,  Hist,  of  the  Quakers. 

II  Wagstaff,  Hist,  of  Society  of  Friends  ;  Sewel. 

^  Ibid. 


358        HISTOBY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 

every  thing  depended  upon  the  anointing  of  the 
Spirit,  and  that  God,  who  made  the  world,  did  not 
dwell  in  temples  made  with  hands.  Those  peculi- 
arities of  language,  dress,  and  manner  which  now 
distinguish  this  sect,  bear  the  seal  of  his  imprima- 
tur, and  owe  their  origin  to  him. 

Misunderstood  and  ill-reported,  the  Quakers — 
as  they  were  termed  because  they  trembled  when 
they  spoke  *— were  long  cruelly  oppressed.  Their 
refusal  to  recognize  any  title  and  to  take  any  oath, 
seemed  to  the  magistrates  of  the  time  to  be  wanton 
whims  of  disrespect.  Outrage,  in  this  case  as  in 
all  others,  bred  fanaticism,  and  many  of  the  Qua- 
kers went  to  absurd  extremes.  But  when  it  was 
understood  that  their  pecuhar  ideas  were  consci- 
entiously held,  they  were  treated  with  less  rigor, 
and  society  welcomed  in  them  some  of  its  best  and 
most  philanthropic  members.t 

The  Presbyterians  were  the  most  numerous  of 
the  sects,  and  they  were  the  descendants  of  the 
bishops  in  their  opposition  to  free  conscience.t 
It  was  against  them  that  the  army  arrayed  itself, 
that  Yane  inveighed,  that  Cromwell  thundered,  and 
that  Milton  wrote  those  celebrated  lines,  addressed 
to  the  great  regicide : 

"Much  remains 
To  conquer  still ;  peace  hath  her  victories 
No  less  renowned  than  war  ;  new  foes  arise, 
Threatening  to  bind  our  souls  in  secular  chains : 

•  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  332,  333. 

t  Baxter's  Life  and  Times ;  Neale. 

%  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  365. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH. 


359 


Help  us  to  save  free  conscience  from  the  paw 
Of  hireling  wolves,  whose  gospel  is  their  maw."» 

This  intolerant  spirit  was  largely  suppressed  by 
the  Council  of  State;  but  the  Presbyterians  were j 
fretful,  and  much  more  troublesome  than  the  Epis- 
copalian or  the  Komanist  parties  all  through  these 
years.t  They  had  played  a  desperate  game  for 
church  aggrandizement,  and  almost  won  it,  and  lost 
it ;  and  writhing  in  exile  from  Westminster,  they 
never  could  feel  reconciled  to  the  result. 

"  An  act  had  passed  in  1649  for  the  propagation 
of  the  gospel  in  Wales,  and  commissioners  were 
appointed  for  ejecting  ignorant  and  scandalous 
clergymen,  and  replacing  them  by  fitter  preachers. 
Pursuant  to  this  law,  it  is  said  that  within  three 
years  there  were  one  hundred  and  fifty  good  preach- 
ers in  the  thirteen  Welsh  counties,  most  of  whom 
spoke  three  or  four  times  a  week.  In  every  mar- 
ket-place there  was  placed  one,  and  in  most  large 
towns  two  school-masters,  able,  learned,  and  uni- 
versity men ;  the  tithes  were  all  employed  as  di- 
rected by  the  Parliament,  that  is,  in  the  mainte- 
nance of  godly  ministers,  in  the  payment  of  taxes 
and  officers,  in  the  remuneration  of  school-masters, 
and  in  the  payment  of  their  fifths  to  the  wives  and 
children  of  sequestered  clergymen.":t 

The  whole  island  was  kept  in  excellent  order.§ 

o  Milton,  Poetical  "Works,  sonnet  on  "Cromwell." 
t  Neale ;  Milton,  Prose  Works ;  Godwin,  Hist,  of  the  Com- 
monwealth. X  ^^eale,  vol.  2,  p.  350. 

§  Godwin,  Hist,  of  Commonwealth ;  Whitelocke ;  Commons' 
Jouniiil. 


360         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

The  troops  were  held  in  exact  discipline ;  money 
was  plenty;  the  exchequer,  always  heretofore  bare 
and  hungry,  was  now  fat  and  full;  the  civil  list  was 
well  paid  ;*  commerce  spread  its  wings  on  every 
sea ;  justice  was  carefully  and  promptly  adminis- 
tered ;t  vice  was  suppressed  and  punished ;  "  there 
was  a  great  appearance  of  devotion ;  the  Sabbath 
was  strictly  kept ;  none  might  walk  the  streets  in 
time  of  divine  service ;  tipplers  were  scourged  from 
the  public-houses ;  Sunday  evenings  were  spent  in 
catechizing  the  children,  in  singing  psalms,  and  in 
other  acts  of  family  devotion,  insomuch  that  an 
acquaintance  with  the  principles  of  religion  and  the 
gift  of  prayer  increased  prodigiously  among  the 
common  people."J 

It  is  also  among  the  trophies  of  the  Common- 
wealth tliat  it  ungagged  the  press.  Grown  wiser 
than  the  bishops,  and  braver  than  the  Presbyterian 
Parliament,  the  Council  of  State  made  no  effort  to 
check  polemics.  Koyalist  pamphlets  of  the  most 
seductive  and  seditious  kind  were  openly  printed 
and  widely  circulated ;  and  the  state  disdained  to 
notice  these  in  any  other  way  than  by  confuting 
them.  To  the  old  warfare  of  swords  succeeded  a 
nobler  warfare  of  intellects ;  brains,  not  muscle,  met 
in  the  arena  and  grappled  for  the  victory.  In  these 
contests,  Milton  was  the  great  champion  of  the  Com- 
monwealth; and  his  sublime  and  austere  genius 

°  Carlyle  ;  Forster's  Stiitesmen  of  the  Commonwealth, 
t  Hume,  vol.  2 ;  Forster,  etc. 
t  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  3-17,  348. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH. 


361 


enabled  him  to  bear  off  a  trophy  where  any  other 
would  have  balked.  His  political  pamphlets,  and 
especially  his  first  and  second  defence  of  the  peo- 
ple of  England  against  the  hireling  assault  of  the 
continental  pedant  Salmasius,  in  which  he  upholds 
the  principles  as  well  as  the  actions  of  the  revolu- 
tion, are  models  of  argumentative  declamation,  and 
before  them  the  most  gorgeous  passages  of  Burke 
sink  into  insignificance.^ 

The  diplomatic  record  of  the  Commonwealth  is 
as  admirable  as  its  domestic  management.  Never 
before  had  England  been  so  influential,  so  irresist- 
ible.t  Kichelieu,  in  dying,  bade  his  successor  steer 
clear  of  "  those  rough-shod  Puritans  ft  Spain  and 
France  made  haste  to  recognize  the  new-launched 
government;!  the  Dutch  Kepubhc  quailed  before 
the  thunder  of  Blake's  guns;  Europe  at  large 
treated  the  island  with  unprecedented  considera- 
tion, and  left  its  card  upon  the  marble  table  of  the 
Council  of  State  with  deferential  awe. 

But  notwithstanding  the  blaze  of  glory  in  which 
its  policy  was  sheeted,  the  government  was  not  pop- 
ular at  home.  It  was  an  essentially  revolutionary 
junto;  when  peace  came,  the  conditions  of  its  exist- 
ence began  to  fail.  The  feverish,  morbid  energy 
which  had  hitherto  exhausted  itself  in  the  subjuga- 
tion of  obstacles,  was  now  forced  to  seek  a  new 

o  Concerning  Milton's  success  in  these  literary  combats  there 
is  but  one  opinion.  See  his  various  lives  ;  also  Guizot,  Godwin, 
Forster,  Clarendon,  Carlyle,  MatiHuley,  etc. 

f  Godwin,  Hist.  Commonwealth ;  Hume,  Neale,  Forster,  etc. 

X  Guizot,  Forster.  §  Guizot's  Cromwell,  etc.,  vol.  1,  ch.  3. 

riiritnua.  16 


N 


362        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

vent,  and  it  began  to  harass  the  people.  Stretches 
of  authority  which  are  necessary  in  times  of  civil 
commotion,  and  which  martial  law  sanctions,  under 
a  pacification  become  abnses  and  strut  as  tyrann3\ 
All  hawkers  and  public  singers  were  suppressed; 
and  whenever  any  one  was  found  exercising  either 
of  these  callings,  ho  was  seized  and  taken  to  a 
house  of  correction  to  be  whipped  as  a  common 
rogue.*  The  publication  of  proceedings  and  de- 
bates before  the  high  courts  of  justice  was  strin- 
gently prohibited.t  In  contravention  of  the  laws 
and  traditions  of  the  country,  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, in  repeated  instances,  constituted  itself  a 
judicial  bureau,  and  condemned  offenders,  whom  it 
could  not  hope  to  reach  in  any  other  way,  to  exile, 
to  heavy  fines,  to  the  pillory,  and  to  prolonged  im- 
prisonment without  a  trial. t 

For  such  extra-judicial  action,  with  its  concom- 
itant vexations,  wide-spread  and  rankling,  no  vigor, 
no  talent  of  administration  could  compensate  in  the 
popular  estimation.  It  was  thought  that  the  best 
governments  were  the  most  unobtrusive ;  that  be- 
neath the  aegis  of  their  laws  society  stood  sheltered, 
while  authority  itself  kept  out  of  sight,  and  was  felt 
only  through  its  benefactions. 

Besides,  the  Commonwealth  professed  to  base 
itself  upon  the  people  ;  their  will  was  its  only  title- 

*  Commons'  Journal,  vol.  6,  pp.  276,  298. 

t  Ibid. ;  Whitelocke,  p.  340. 

X  Ibid.  Guizot,  in  Cromwdl  and  the  Commonwealth,  has 
admirably  analyzed  this  passage  in  English  history,  and  to  his 
rationale  we  refer  all  curious  readers.     See  vol.  1,  pp.  69,  et  seq. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH. 


363 


r 


I 


deed.  It  was  not,  like  the  monarchy  it  had  tried 
and  beheaded,  covered  with  the  hoar  of  age,  linked 
through  a  thousand  associations  with  men's  mem- 
ory of  the  past,  grouted  in  the  habits  and  the  stat- 
utes of  a  thousand  years.  No  ;  it  was  the  negative 
of  these ;  and  remembering  the  old  Latin  law,  ob- 
sta  prwcipiiSy  it  should  have  created  for  itself  a 
higher  sanction  than  antique  custom,  and  guarded 
against  the  heginning  oi  discontent  by  anchoring  it- 
self in  the  hearts  of  all  Englishmen. 

This  the  "  Kump"  parliament  not  only  failed  to 
do,  but  worse,  it  had  the  hardihood  to  alienate  its 
only  supporter,  Cromwell,  by  breaking  a  lanco 
against  the  army.  Conqueror  and  master,  it  be- 
held arising  in  its  midst  a  conqueror  and  a  master 
against  whom  it  was  incapable  of  defending  itself. 
The  new-born  Commonwealth  felt  that  Cromwell 
domineered  over  it;  at  every  crisis  of  peril  or  alarm 
it  had  recourse  to  him,  and  when  the  crisis  passed, 
it  grew  terrified  at  the  credit  and  renown  which  he 
had  acquired  by  saving  it.  And  Cromwell,  on  his 
side,  while  lavish  in  his  demonstrations  of  the  most 
humble  devotedness  to  the  Commonwealth,  gave 
continual  expression  to  his  dissatisfaction  with 
many  features  of  the  governmental  policy.* 

Each  one  began  to  seek  for  a  pretext  to  destroy 
the  other.     Cromwell  found  one  first. 

At  the  close  of  their  session  in  1652,  the  Com- 
mons, instead  of  dissolving  and  giving  way  to  a  new 
parliament,  voted  to  go  over  the  legal  time,  and 
*  Guizot,  vol.  1,  p.  71 ;  D'Aubign^'s  Protectorate. 


X 


\ 


V. 


364 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH. 


365 


\ 


they  elected  another  council  of  state  out  of  their 
ovm  body.*  A  little  later,  in  preparation  for  a  war 
with  Holland,  they  began  to  augment  the  fleet  out 
of  the  land  forces,  a  proceeding  which  tended  to 
disarm  Cromwell  by  depriving  him  of  his  devoted 
soldiers.t  The  astute  general  saw  the  danger,  and 
as  usual,  acted  with  prompt  vigor.  The  army  de- 
clined to  serve  in  the  navy,  and  immediately  sent 
up  a  petition  in  favor  of  reform  and  a  dissolution 
of  Parliament.:}:  The  Parliament,  angry  at  what  it 
termed  the  "insolence"  of  its  servants,  passed  an 
act  making  it  treason  to  petition  for  their  dissolu- 
tion.§  Then  the  storm  burst.  Cromwell  summoned 
a  council  of  officers  at  Whitehall ;  all  agreed  that 
the  Commons  should  be  forced  to  give  way ;  and  in 
the  spring  of  1653  the  great  soldier  entered  West- 
minster Hall,  expelled  the  Commons  from  their 
seats  before  the  guns  of  a  file  of  musketeers,  and 
seizing  the  archives,  locked  and  double-barred  the 
doors  of  the  representative  chamber.  Thence  he 
proceeded  to  the  Council  of  State,  and  stamping 
them  out  of  existence,  freed  England  from  the 
curse  of  a  Yenetian  oligarchy.il 

Although  the  Cavaliers,  the  Presbyterians,  and 
the  Levellers,  acting  from  very  different  motives, 
loaded  Cromwell  with  invectives  and  formed  con- 
spiracies against  his  person,  his  action  received  the 

•  Commons'  Journal,  vol.  6  ;  Ludlow's  Memoirs.  f  It)i<l' 

X  Hutchinson's  Memoirs  ;  Ludlow's  Mem.  ;  Whitelocke,  etc. 
§  Macauley,  Guizot,  Whitelocke,  Southey's  Life  of  Cromwell. 
II  Commons'  Journal ;  Forster's  Statesmen  of  the  Common- 
wealth. 


( 


hearty  sympathy  of  the  masses,  and  this — since  in 
that  revolutionary  epoch  all  legal  safeguards  were 
trodden  down — is  his  sufficient  warrant. 

A  new  state  was  at  once  settled ;  that  parlia- 
ment which  has  passed  into  history  as  Barehone's 
Parliament — so  called  from  one  of  its  most  active 
members — was  convened,  and  Cromwell,  as  chief 
executive,  was  clothed  with  the  powers  of  a  Dutch 
stadtholder.  Five  months  passed  unmarked  by 
events  of  any  ecclesiastical  importance.  Then 
Cromwell,  finding  that  his  legislature  questioned 
the  authority  under  which  they  met,  and  that  he 
was  in  danger  of  being  deprived  of  the  restricted 
power  which  was  absolutely  necessary  to  his  per- 
sonal safety  and  to  the  general  welfare,  dismissed 
"  Praise  God  Barebones  "  and  his  followers,  as  he 
had  the  "Long"  and  the  "Eump"  parHaments.* 
Once  more  the  government  was  new  modelled,  a 
form  which  squinted  towards  monarchy  was  elab- 
orated,t  and  under  this  Cromwell,  assisted  by  a 
council,  assumed  supreme  authority,  under  the  title 
of  "  Lord  Protector  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  and  Ireland."! 

This  constitutes  what  is  called  Cromwell's  "usur- 
pation." Perhaps  it  is  rightly  named ;  but  we  ap- 
prehend that  it  would  be  difficult  to  show  in  what 
respect  he  was  a  greater  offender  than  the  author- 
ities whom  he  superseded.    Undoubtedly  he  trans- 

o  Ludlow's  Memoirs  ;  Guizot ;  Hutchinson's  Memoirs. 

t  Guizot,  vol.  2,  pp.  35-123  ;  Hume  ;  D'Aubign(5's Protectorate. 

%  Ibid.  ;  T.  Cromwell,  Life  and  Times  of  Oliver  CromwelL 


r 


'^^il 


366 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


gressed  the  constitutional  law  of  England ;  and  so 
did  the  Long  Parliament;  so  also  did  the  Common- 
wealth. The  apology  for  all,  is  that  Latin  which 
justified  the  first  appeal  to  arms — salus  popiili  su- 
prema  lex. 

If  it  be  pleaded  that  parliaments  came  from  the 
people  and  represented  their  opinion,  the  ready- 
response  is,  that  this  mantle  wraps  Cromwell's  ad- 
ministration also  in  its  folds;  for  the  peaceful 
acquiescence  of  three  kingdoms  made  his  acts 
theirs.  We  think,  with  Macauley,  that  "a  good 
constitution  is  infinitely  better  than  the  best  des- 
pot." We  also  suspect,  with  him,  "  that  at  the 
time  of  which  we  speak  the  violence  of  religious 
and  poHtical  enmities  rendered  a  normal,  constitu- 
tional settlement  next  to  impossible,"  the  choice 
lying  not  between  Cromwell  and  strict  republican- 
Ism,  but  between  Cromwell  and  the  Stuarts.  The 
student  of  history,  on  a  fair  comparison  of  the 
events  of  the  Protectorate  with  the  thirty  years 
which  succeeded  the  Eestoration,  cannot  choose  but 
cry  "Amen"  to  the  "usurpation"  of  Oliver  Cromwell. 

On  the  day  following  Cromwell's  dissolution  of 
the  Parliament,  a  crowd  collected  at  the  door  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  to  read  an  immense  placard 
which  had  been  placed  there  during  the  night  by 
some  witty  Cavalier,  who  sought  to  avenge  his  ru- 
ined cause  by  a  squib  ;  it  bore  this  inscription : 

*  THIS  HOUSE  TO  LET  UNFURNISHED."* 

o  Ludlow's  Memoirs,  p.  194 ;  cited  in  Guizot's  Cromwell,  voL 
I.  pp.  357,  358. 


7 


/ 


THE  PROTECTORATE 


367 


CHAPTEE  XXVIII. 

THE  PROTECTORATE. 

Now,  take  it  aU  in  all,  commenced  the  most  re- 
markable administration  which  Europe  had  ever 
seen.  A  well-to-do  yeoman,  aided  Hby  his  own  ge- 
nius and  passionate  energy,  had  ascended  by  rapid 
steps  from  the  floor  of  Parliament  to  the  royal  plat- 
form of  a  hundred  kings.  Clothed  in  the  purple  of 
the  ousted  Stuarts,  he  affirmed  that  his  assumption 
of  the  government  was  not  so  much  the  eflfect  of  his 
own  ambition  as  of  a  bold  resolution  not  to  permit 
the  nation  to  fall  back  into  anarchy  and  blood.  He 
added,  "  Here  I  sit,  sword  in  hand,  and  I  am  not  to 
be  jostled  out  of  the  saddle  by  seditious  murmurs, 
by  Yotes,  or  by  resolutions." 

Ere  long  the  marvellous  statesmanship  of  the 
puritanical  Protector  placated  England  into  quie- 
tude, and  made  the  Continent  his  vassal. 

Cromwell  first  turned  his  attention  to  domestic 
affairs.  Three  parties  in  the  state  were  his  open 
enemies  :  the  Boyalists,  the  Presbyterians,  and  the 
Levellers.*  The  royalists  were  irreconcilable ;  they 
plotted  to  assassinate  him,  and  were  always  on  the 
qui  vive  for  an  emeute.  The  Presbyterians  "  were  in 
principle  for  the  king  and  the  covenant ;  after  the 
battle  of  Worcester  they  were  terrified  into  com- 

o  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  370-374 ;  Guizot,  Hume. 


\ 


368         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 

pKance  witli  the  Commonwealth.  But  when  Crom- 
well broke  that  government  in  pieces,  his  surprising 
advancement  filled  them  with  new  fears,  for  they 
considered  him  not  only  a  usurper,  but  a  sectarian 
who  would  countenance  the  free  exercise  of  relig- 
ion, provided  only  that  men  would  live  peaceably 
under  his  government;  and  though  he  assured  them 
that  he  would  continue  religion  on  the  footing  of 
the  existing  Bstablishment,  nothing  would  satisfy 
them  so  long  as  their  discipline  was  disarmed  of  its 
coercive  power."* 

The  levellers  were  split  into  two  parties ;  one  of 
them  was  enamoured  of  radical  democracy,  and  as 
its  chiefs  were  deists  who  cared  little  for  religion, 
Cromwell  nicknamed  them  the  heathen.  The  other 
was  composed  of  fifth  monarchy  men ;  these  were 
heated  enthusiasts,  who  lived  in  expectation  of  the 
speedy  personal  reign  of  Christ.  They  were  fierce 
to  pull  down  all  churches,  to  destroy  the  clergy, 
and  "  to  leave  religion  free,  without  either  encour- 
agement or  restraint,  "t 

These  three  parties  hated  each  other  as  bitterly 
as  they  detested  the  Protector;  and  Cromwell,  with 
infinite  tact,  played  one  off  against  the  other,  and 
thus,  in  these  mutual  bickerings,  dulled  the  keen 
edge  of  that  resentment  which  might  have  cut  his 
authority  if  turned  unitedly  against  himseK.f 

His  chief  supporters  were  the  Independents, 

o  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  370,  371. 

t  Ibid. ;  Godwin,  Hist.  Commonwealth  ;  Forster's  Statesmen, 
«*c-  X  Ibid. 


I . 


THE  PROTECTORATE. 


369 


who  looked  upon  him  as  the  head  of  their  party,  ^ 
because  he  was  averse  to  church  power  and  for 
universal  toleration;  the  city  of  London,  whose 
merchants  craved  peace  and  a  stable  government 
as  the  chief  necessity  of  successful  trade ;  and  the 
army,  whose  pride  and  affection  knew  no  bounds.* 
"  The  Protector's  wisdom,"  says  Neale, "  appeared 
in  nothing  more  than  in  his  unwearied  endeavors  to 
make  all  religious  parties  easy.  He  indulged  the 
army  in  its  enthusiastic  raptures,  and  sometimes 
joined  in  the  prayers  and  sermons  of  the  camp.  He 
countenanced  the  Presbyterians  by  assuring  them 
that  he  would  maintain  the  public  ministry.  He 
supported  the  Independents  by  making  them  his 
chaplains,  by  preferring  them  to  considerable  liv- 
ings in  the  church  and  universities,  and  by  uniting 
them  in  one  commission  with  the  Presbyterians  as 
triers  of  all  such  as  desired  to  be  admitted  to  ben- 

efices."t 

A  civil  establishment  of  religion  of  a  peculiar 
kind  was  now  in  existence.  Christianity  was  not 
left  solely  to  the  voluntary  principle  for  support, 
but  a  part  of  the  old  revenues  of  the  church,  and 
also  grants  of  public  money,  were  appropriated  to 
this  use.  Yet  this  establishment  was  unique,  and 
differed  essentially  from  any  that  had  preceded  it, 
and  from  that  which  came  in  with  the  Eestoration. 
The  purpose  of  the  Presbyterians  had  been  and 
still  was,  to  twist  the  English  Establishment  into  a 

*  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  370,  371 ;  Godwin,  Hist.  Commonwealth ; 
Forster's  Statesmen,  etc.  t  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  364. 

16* 


; 


\ 


370         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

form  similar  to  that  of  the  Scottish  church,  in  which 
all  religionists  except  themselves  should  be  exclud- 
ed from  the  protection  and  pecuniary  support  of  the 
state.  This  the  influence  of  the  more  liberal  par- 
ties had  always  held  in  check;  and  now,  under  the 
Protectorate,  all  Protestants  holding  evangelical 
sentiments  were  invited  to  nestle  under  the  wine  of 

o 

the  Establishment:* 

"An  agreement  in  the  fundamental  truths  of 
Christianity,  together  with  the  possession  of  per- 
sonal piety  and  adequate  ministerial  gifts,  were  the 
only  requisites  demanded  of  those  who  sought  to 
enjoy  ecclesiastical  benefices..  Triers  were  appoint- 
ed by  the  government  to  ascertain  the  qualifications 
of  clergymen;  and  though  ridicule  in  abundance 
has  been  poured  upon  the  proceedings  of   these 
men,  it  has  been  proved  that,  on  the  whole,  they 
discharged  their  duty  with  rectitude  and  prudence. 
Baxter,  whose  independence  and  integrity  of  judg- 
ment in  such  matters  is  universally  conceded,  ac- 
knowledges that  these  commissioners  did   abun- 
dance of  good  to  the  church.t    No  doubt  there 
were  instances  in  which  conscientious  high  church- 
men were  roughly  dealt  with— and  clergymen  who 
thus  suffered  wrong  for  the  sake  of  principle  are 
deserving  of  honor— yet,  for  the  most  part  by  far, 
those  who  were  excluded  by  the  triers  had,  by  their 
scandalous  lives,  proved  themselves  totally  unfit  for 
the  holy  office  which  they  had  assumed."J 

•  StoTighlon,  Spiritual  Heroes,  p.  250,  et  seq. 

t  Ibi^  t  Il>id. ;  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  365,  366. 


; 


i 


i> 


THE  PROTECTORATE. 


371 


Cromwell  personally  drew  around  him  men  of 
different  denominations,  and  divided  among  them 
his  favors.     We  have  seen  that,  though  the  Pres- 
byterians formed  the  greater  number  of  those  who 
were  supported  by  the   state,  ministers  of  other 
sects  were  admitted  to  share  in  its  emoluments. 
The  same  liberality  prevailed  at  court.     Though 
the  Protector  was  most  attached  to  the  Indepen- 
dents, he  also  employed  Presbyterians  in  his  ser- 
vice.    Manton  prayed  at  his  inauguration,  Baxter 
preached  in  his  chapel,  and  Calamy  was  admitted 
to  his  councils.    Moderate  Episcopalians  and  Bap- 
tists might  be  found  in  the  pulpits  of  parish  church- 
es ;  and  in  some  parts  of  England  there  were  county 
union  associations,  in  which  ministers  of  the  vari- 
.  ous  sects  assembled  for  fraternal  conference  and 
prayer. 

Episcopacy  and  popery  were  suppressed  by 
statute,  because  they  were  esteemed  peculiarly 
inimical  and  dangerous  at  that  time;  yet  there 
were  supporters  of  both  systems  whom  the  Pro- 
tector generously  befriended.  He  treated  Brown- 
rigg,  bishop  of  Exeter,  with  great  respect;  saved 
Dr.  Barnard's  life,  and  made  him  his  almoner ;  in- 
vited Archbishop  Usher  to  visit  him,  evinced  a 
warm  and  sincere  regard  for  his  many  virtues,  and 
when  that  excellent  prelate  died,  commanded  his 
interment  in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  contributed 
two  hundred  pounds  to  his  funeral.* 

Even  Romanists  were  kindly  treated  if  they 

*  Stoughton,  Neale,  Macauley,  Forster. 


9 


■■■■p* 


-<n»" 


372 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


conducted  themselves  with  propriety.  Sir  Kenelm 
Digby,  a  well-known  papist,  was  lodged  by  Crom- 
well at  Whitehall;  and  the  penal  code  against 
priests  was  often  suspended  under  his  hand  and 
seal.*  "I  should  think  my  heart  not  an  honest 
one,"  wrote  Sir  Kenelm  to  Secretary  Thurlow,  "  if 
the  blood  about  it  were  not  warmed  with  any,  the 
least  imputation  upon  my  respect  and  duty  to  his 
highness,  to  whom  I  owe  so  much."t 

Such  is  the  glowing  record  which  impartial  his- 
tory makes  of  the  broad  and  Christian  toleration 
of  the  great  Puritan  "usurper."  Yet  this  very  lat- 
itude, one  of  the  best  evidences  of  his  high.  Chris- 
tian principle,  has  been  made  the  basis  of  a  sneer 
at  his  religious  sincerity.  "  How  little  religion  was 
the  concern,  or  so  much  as  any  longer  the  pretence 
of  Cromw^ell,"  says  Bishop  Kennet,  "  appears  from 
this,  that  in  the  large  instrument  of  the  government 
of  the  Commonwealth,  which  was  the  magna  charta 
of  the  new  constitution,  there  is  not  a  word  of 
churches,  synods,  ministers,  nor  any  thing  but  the 
Christian  religion  in  general,  with  liberty  to  all  dif- 
fering in  judgment  from  the  doctrine,  worship,  or 
discipHne,  publicly  held  forth."J 

To  mature  thinkers,  this  fact,  here  stated  as  a 
fault,  is  the  best  title-deed  to  immortaUty  which 
Cromwell  could  desire. 

Under  the  Protectorate  very  great  attention 

»  StoTighton,  Neale,  Macauley,  Forster. 
t  Ibid. ;  Ludlow's  Memoirs,  etc. 
X  Cited  in  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  362,  363. 


THE  PROTECTOKATE. 


373 


/. 


i 


« 


was  paid  to  the  cultivation  of  letters ;  schools  and 
school -masters  abounded;  and  the  universities 
were  kept  under  the  careful  supervision  of  the  gov- 
ernment.* 

Oxford  especially  was  tenderly  nurtured.  That 
classic  old  town  had  been  strictly  royalist  in  the 
earlier  years  of  the  civil  war,  and  the  king  had 
made  it  his  head-quarters.  Study  was  routed ;  the 
university  became  a  garrison.  The  gownsman  was 
transformed  into  a  miUtary  cavalier;  the  college 
cap  was  doffed  for  the  steel  helmet. t  The  terroijilii 
who  continued  their  residence  employed  their  wits 
in  writing  weekly  mercuries  and  satirical  pamph- 
lets, in  which  the  Parliament  was  lampooned,  while 
the  Puritan  divines  were  scoffed  at  as  infamous,  ig- 
norant, and  hypocritical  traitors.:]: 

But  when  the  king's  cause  went  down  before 
Cromwell's  "Ironsides"  at  Marston  Moor  and 
Naseby,  the  University  was  revolutionized.  Mild 
measures,  which  were  essayed  by  the  Parliament 
at  the  outset,  proved  ineffectual.§  Then  sharper 
measures  were  tried.  All  riot  was  forcibly  re- 
pressed. The  halls,  shattered  in  the  recent  wars, 
were  rebuilt,  the  officers  and  townsmen  who  had 
usurped  the  old  scholastic  chambers  were  expelled ; 
the  bursaries  emptied  in  the  service  of  the  king 
were  refilled ;  the  plate,  melted  down  in  aid  of  the 
royahst  cause,  was  replaced.    The  Oxfordians  were 

*  Godwin,  Hist.  Commonwealth ;  Forster's  Statesmen,  etc. 

t  Wood,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Oxford. 

X  Neale,  Wood,  Stoughton.  §  Ibid. 


THE  PROTECTOEATE. 


375 


374 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


obliged  to  subscribe  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant, 
which  caused  a  great  flutter  in  the  dove-cote,  but 
of  which  they  were  estopped  from  complaining  by 
their  own  acts,  since,  in  their  day,  scholars  were 
obliged  to  subscribe  the  Thirty-nine  Articles — and 
"  old  things  became  new."* 

"Drab-colored"  Puritanism  now  became  the 
order  of  the  day  at  Oxford.  The  Liturgy  was  no 
longer  chanted  in  the  college  chapel.  The  surplice 
vanished  from  the  desk.  The  altar  rails  were  re- 
moved. The  communion-table  was  placed  in  the 
aisle.  The  Genevan  cloak  and  cap  appeared  in  the 
pulpit.  Images  and  crucifixes  were  removed.  Even 
the  city  underwent  a  change.  Kigid  Presbyterian- 
ism  suppressed  the  olden  amusements ;  the  theatre 
was  closed.  In  the  streets,  instead  of  the  slashed 
doublet,  the  love-locks,  and  the  drooping  feather 
of  the  CavaHer,  the  close-cropped  hair,  the  high- 
crowned  hat,  and  the  plain  cloak  of  the  Koundhead 
became  predominant.f 

Strict  attention  to  study,  sobriety  of  deportment, 
and  external  piety  were  enforced. 

Under  Cromwell's  regime  the  severity  of  this 
Presbyterian  discipline  was  somewhat  relaxed.  No 
oath,  excepting  to  support  the  government,  was  ex- 
acted, and  a  number  of  Independents  were  sprin- 
kled among  the  proctors  and  college  "  dons.":f  But 
imperious  orders  were  given  for  the  promotion  of 

«  Wood,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Oxford ;  Neale,  vol.  2,  chs.  19, 
passim.  f  Ibid.;  Stoughton. 

%  Wood,  Neale,  Whitelocke. 


I 


K^ 


the  interests  of  learning ;  and  a  dihgent  cultivation 
of  literature  as  well  as  religion  ensued.  It  was 
also  enjoined  that  the  greatest  famiharity  with  the 
learned  languages  should  be  encouraged  by  the 
employment,  at  specified  times,  of  Latin  and  Greek 
in  common  conversation  by  the  fellows,  scholars, 
and  students.*  These  studies  were  held  to  be  even 
more  important  in  that  age  than  they  are  in  ours, 
because  Latin  especially  was  the  vernacular  of  the 
learned  world,  and  diplomacy  itself  spoke  through 
that  tongue. 

In  1650  the  members  of  the  university  of  Oxford 
unanimously  elected  Oliver  Cromwell  to  the  office  of 
chancellor.!  "  "Warriors  seem  by  no  means  the  fit- 
test persons  for  such  a  position,"  observes  Stough- 
ton, "  but  Oxford  still  retains  a  partiality  for  men 
of  that  class.  The  university  in  our  time  has  placed 
Wellington  in  the  chair  once  occupied  by  Crom- 
well ;  and  we  may  all  agree  with  Kahl,  that  *  these 
are  the  two  most  remarkable  chancellors  that  Ox- 
ford ever  had.'  However,  Cromwell  had  something 
to  recommend  him  for  that  post  besides  his  mili- 
tary renown  and  political  power.  He  was  any  thing 
but  an  illiterate  and  tasteless  fanatic.  WaUer  the 
poet,  who  was  his  kinsman,  says  he  was  very  well 
read  in  Greek  and  Latin  story;  and  Whitelocke 
informs  us  that  he  was  capable  of  holding  a  dis- 
course in  Latin  with  the  Swedish  ambassador. 
Cromwell  was  also  a  lover  of  the  fine  arts.  He 
saved  the  painted  windows  of  King's  CoUege  chapel, 

o  Wood,  Neale,  Whitelocke.  f  Ibid.,  Stoughton. 


\ 


.\. 


376 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


Cambridge,  from  spoliation,  carefully  preserved  the 
cartoons,  and  would  permit  no  injury  to  be  done  to 
those  noble  specimens  of  architecture,  Hampton 
Court  and  Windsor  Castle.  He  had  a  rare  power 
to  control  men.  *  The  natural  king,'  says  Carlyle, 
*is  one  who  melts  all  wills  into  his  own.'  This 
Cromwell  did ;  and  surely  the  man  who  employed 
Milton  to  draw  up  his  state  papers,  and  Simon  to 
engrave  his  coins,  could  not  be  destitute  of  taste. 
He  was,  moreover,  fond  of  music;  and  when  the 
organ  was  taken  down  at  Magdalen  College,  he 
ordered  it  conveyed  to  Hampton  Court,  where  he 
had  it  placed  in  the  great  gallery,  and  was  accus- 
tomed to  soothe  the  cares  of  poUtics  by  listening 
to  the  tones  of  that  noble  instrument.  Nor  should 
it  be  forgotten  that  Cromwell  proved  himself  a  pa- 
tron of  literature.  His  well-known  permission  to 
"Walton  to  import  paper  for  his  noble  Polyglot  duty 
free,  is  one  example  culled  from  many."* 

•  Stoughton,  pp.  198,  199. 

**An  inventory  of  sums  contributed  to  the  college  library  at 
Glasgow  is  preserved.  The  first  leaf  contains  this  memorandum  : 
*  His  majesty's  contribution  was  graciously  granted  at  Setoun,  llth 
July,  1633  :  Charles  Kex.  It  is  our  gracious  pleasure  to  grant,  for 
the  advancement  of  the  library  and  fabric  of  the  College  of  Glas- 
gow, the  sum  of  two  hundred  pounds  sterling.'  So  much  for  the 
promise  of  Charles.  The  performance  was  from  the  privy-purse  of 
the  Protector  twenty-one  years  afterwards,  and  is  thus  recorded : 
•This  sum  was  paid  by  the  Lord  Protector,  a.  d.  1654.'"  Dib- 
din's  Northern  Tour,  vol.  2,  p.  713.  Cromwell  also  settled  one 
hundred  pounds  per  year  on  a  divinity  professor  at  Oxford ;  he 
gave  twenty  rare  manuscripts  to  the  Bodleian  library;  and  he 
erected  and  endowed  a  college  at  Durham  for  the  benefit  of  the 
northern  counties.    Neale. 


THE  PROTECTOKATE 


377 


The  moderation,  the  wisdom,  the  equity,  and  the 
consummate  success  of  Cromwell's  internal  govern- 
ment, extort  a  grudged  encomium  even  from  the 
reluctant  pen  of  Hume  himself,  who  was  at  once  a 
tory  and  a  sceptic.  "  It  must  be  acknowledged," 
he  says,  "that  in  his  civil  and  domestic  adminis- 
tration, the  Protector  displayed  as  great  regard 
both  to  justice  and  clemency  as  his  usurped  au- 
thority, derived  from  no  law  and  founded  only  on 
the  sword,  could  possibly  permit.  All  the  chief 
offices  in  the  courts  of  judicature  were  filled  with 
men  of  integrity ;  amid  the  violence  of  faction,  the 
decrees  of  the  judges  were  upright  and  impartial; 
and  to  every  man  the  law  was  the  great  rule  of  con- 
duct and  behavior.  He  was  pleased  that  the  su- 
perior lenity  of  his  regime  should  in  every  thing  be 
remarked."* 

Baxter,  who  was  far  from  being  partial  to 
Cromwell,  writing  after  the  Eestoration,  says,  "  All 
men  were  suffered  to  live  quietly  and  to  enjoy  their 
properties  under  the  Protectorate.  The  Lord  Pro- 
tector removed  the  errors  and  prejudices  which 
hindered  the  success  of  the  gospel,  especially  con- 
sidering that  godliness  had  countenance  and  repu- 
tation as  well  as  hberty;  whereas  before,  if  it  did 
not  appear  in  all  the  fetters  and  formalities  of  the 
times,  it  was  the  way  to  common  shame  and  ruin. 
When  I  compare  these  times  with  those,  I  conclude 
for  the  future  to  think  that  land  happy  where  the 
people  have  but  bare  liberty  to  be  as  good  as  they 

•  Hume,  vol  2,  p.  398,  399. 


378 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


are  willing ;  and  if  countenance  and  maintenance 
be  added  to  liberty,  as  then  they  were,  and  toler- 
ated errors  and  sects  be  but  forced  to  keep  the 
peace,  I  shall  hereafter  not  much  fear  such  tolera- 
tion, nor  despair  that  truth  will  bear  down  its  ad- 
Tersaries."^ 

But  while  Cromwell's  domestic  administration 
was  thus  admirable,  his  foreign  policy  was  no  less 
energetic  and  effective.  Milton,  who  had  literally 
torn  out  his  eyes  as  an  oblation  to  liberty — for  he 
contracted  his  blindness  by  over-application  in  the 
compilation  of  his  pamphlets  in  defence  of  the  rev- 
olution— was  continued  under  Cromwell  in  the  sec- 
retaryship of  state,  though  he  had  an  assistant  in 
his  excellent  and  devoted  friend  Andrew  Marvel.f 
Sir  Matthew  Hale  was  made  Chief-justice  of  the 
Common  Pleas;  Thurlow  held  the  State  Bureau; 
and  Monk,  who  was  destined  one  day  to  betray  the 
liberties  of  his  country,  was  entrusted  with  the  gov- 
ernment of  Scotland. t 

In  1654,  Ireland  and  Scotland  were  incorporat- 
ed ;  and  from  that  time  the  arms  of  both  those  na- 
tions  were  quartered  with  those  of  England.§ 

In  the  first  months  of  the  Protectorate  the 
Dutch  had  sued  for  peace;  and  this  tho  fame  of 
Cromwell  enabled  him  to  conclude  without  the  cer- 
emony of  a  formal  treaty.     He  submitted  his  con- 

•  Baxter,  Life  and  Times. 

f  Life  and  Times  of  John  Milton,  Amer.  Tr.  Society,  1866. 
X  Hume,  Guizot,  Godwin,  Forster,  D'Anbign^'s  Protectorate. 
§  Ibid. ;  Harris,  Life  of  Cromwell. 


THE  PKOTECTORATE. 


379 


ditions.  Abatements  were  requested.  "  Sign,"  said 
the  imperious  Protector.  Holland  hastened  to  do 
so,  and  the  signature  robbed  her  of  the  hard-earned 
laurels  of  a  hundred  years;  for  she  stipulated  to 
abandon  the  interests  of  Charles  II.;  to  cede  the 
island  of  Palerone,  in  the  East  Indies,  to  England ; 
to  pay  eighty-five  thousand  pounds  as  an  indem- 
nity for  British  losses  j  to  punish  the  murderers  of 
British  subjects  at  Amboyna ;  and,  hardest  of  all, 
while  Yan  Tromp,  who  had  threatened  to  sweep  the 
British  flag  from  the  sea  with  the  broom  fastened 
to  the  mast-head  of  his  frigates,  was  hardly  cold  in 
his  coffin,  Holland  yielded  up  the  sovereignty  of 
the  ocean.* 

Europe  looked  on  aghast ;  and  when  the  conti- 
nental sovereigns  witnessed  this  humiliating  treaty, 
wrung  from  the  Dutch  by  the  haughty  fiat  of  the 
Lord  Protector,  they  hastened  to  compliment  his 
highness  upon  his  advancement  and  to  cultivate 
his  friendship.  The  king  of  Portugal  asked  pardon 
for  receiving  prince  Rupert  in  his  ports ;  the  Danes 
got  themselves  included  in  the  Dutch  treaty;  the 
Swedes  sued  for  an  alliance,  which  was  concluded 
with  their  ambassador  ;t  and  the  French  ambassa- 
dor, who  was  received  by  Cromwell  at  Whitehall  with 
all  the  state  of  a  crowned  head,  having  made  his 
obeisance,  and  mentioned  his  royal  master's  desire 
to  estabHsh  a  correspondence  between  his  domin- 

o  Hume,  Guizot,  Godwin,  Forster,  DAubign^'s  Protectorate ; 
Harris,  Life  of  Cromwell ;  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  369. 

f  Vaughan's  Protectorate  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  Godwin,  Forster. 


\ 


380 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


ions  and  England,  proceeded  to  say,  "The  king 
my  master  communicates  his  resolutions  to  none 
with  so  much  joy  and  cheerfulness  as  to  those 
whose  virtuous  actions  and  extraordinary  merits 
render  them  even  more  conspicuously  famous  than 
the  largeness  of  their  dominions.  His  majesty  is 
sensible  that  all  these  advantages  do  wholly  reside 
in  your  highness,  and  that  the  divine  Providence, 
after  so  many  calamities,  could  not  deal  more  fa- 
vorably with  these  three  nations,  nor  cause  them 
to  forget  their  past  miseries  with  greater  satisfac- 
tion, than  by  subjecting  them  to  so  just  a  govern- 
ment."* 

The  flunkey  crowned  heads  of  Europe  would 
have  gone  even  further  than  they  did  had  Cromwell 
expressed  the  wish,  and  ordered  their  savants  to 
hunt  up  a  jus  divinum  as  a  basis  for  the  Protecto- 
rate, from  some  forgotten  record  of  the  past. 

Towards  the  Romanist  powers  Cromwell  as- 
sumed an  attitude  of  complete  and  fearless  Kberty, 
unmarked  by  prejudice  or  ill-will,  but  equally  de- 
void of  courtship  or  flattery,  showing  himseK  dis- 
posed to  maintain  peace,  but  always  leaving  open 
the  prospect  of  war,  and  watching  over  the  inter- 
ests of  his  country  cind  of  Protestantism  with  stern 
and  uncompromising  haughtiness.t 

It  was  in  1654  that  Cromwell's  celebrated  inter- 
vention for  the  Yaudois — 

#  **  E'en  them  who  kept  God's  truth  so  pure  of  old, 

•^  When  all  our  fathers  worshipped  stocks  and  stones  " — 

•  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  369,  370         \  Guizot,  vol.  2,  pp.  78,  79. 


THE  PEOTECTOEATE. 


381 


occurred.  The  duke  of  Savoy,  spurred  thereto  by 
his  duchess,  by  the  pope,  and  by  the  Italian 
princes,  undertook  to  massacre  the  feeble  remnant 
of  those  hunted  mediaeval  reformers  who  had  been 
driven  out  of  France  to  the  shelter  of  the  Piedmont 
valleys.*  Fearful  cruelty  was  exercised,  and  the 
wail  of  the  slaughtered  saints  echoed  from  the  Al- 
pine mountains  to  Whitehall.  Cromwell  moved  all 
Europe  to  intervene ;  and  when  Mazarin,  who  had 
succeeded  Richelieu  in  the  government  of  France, 
made  excuses  and  hesitated,  the  iron  Puritan  thun- 
dered his  war  cry,  and  proposed  to  go  personally 
to  the  rescue.  So  great  was  Cromwell's  reputation 
that  this  was  not  necessary  :  the  massacre  ceased ; 
Savoy  made  amends;  the  continental  sovereigns 
poured  contributions  into  Piedmont ;  collections 
were  taken  up  throughout  the  united  kingdoms  of 
Great  Britain ;  the  Protector  himself  headed  the 
subscription-list,  and  for  once  authority  compelled 
an  act  of  poetic  justice.t 

"  To  strike  further  terror  into  the  pope  and  the 
petty  princes  of  Italy,"  says  Neale,  "  the  Protector 
gave  out  that,  forasmuch  as  he  was  satisfied  that 
they  had  been  the  promoters  of  the  Yaudois  per- 
secution, he  would  keep  it  in  mind,  and  lay  hold  of 
the  first  opportunity  to  send  his  fleet  into  the  Med- 
iterranean to  visit  Civita  Yecchia  and  other  ports 


•  Hist,  of  Huguenots,  Amer.  Tr.  Soc,  186G ;  Thurlow's  State 
Papers. 

t  Milton,  Prose  Works,  vol.  5,  pp.  247-258  ;  Vaughan's  Crom- 
well, vol.  1,  p.  158 ;  Morland,  Hist.  Evang.  Church  in  Piedmont. 


; 


v 


382 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITAKS. 


THE  PROTECTORATE. 


383 


of  the  ecclesiastical  territories,  and  that  the  sound 
of  his  cannon  should  be  heard  in  Home  itself.  He 
declared  publicly  that  he  would  not  suffer  the  Prot- 
estant faith  to  be  insulted  in  any  part  of  the  world; 
this  procured  liberty  to  the  reformed  in  Bohemia 
and  France ;  nor  was  there  any  potentate  in  Eu- 
rope so  hardy  as  to  risk  his  displeasure  by  denying 
his  imperious  requests."* 

One  of  the  secrets  of  Cromwell's  European  in- 
fluence was,  that  it  was  known  that  his  threats  were 
not  vox  et  prceterea  nihil.  If  he  talked  high,  he 
acted  higher.t  Some  years  after  the  Vaudois  in- 
tervention, he  did  indeed  dispatch  a  squadron  of 
thirty  ships,  under  that  stem  republican  Admiral 
Blake — whose  fame,  like  the  Protector's,  was  now 
spread  over  Christendom — into  the  Mediterranean. 
"No  English  fleet,"  remarks  Hume,  "except  during 
the  crusades,  had  ever  before  sailed  in  those  seas ; 
and  from  one  extremity  to  the  other  there  was  no 
naval  force.  Christian  or  Mohammedan,  able  to  re- 
sist them.  The  Koman  pontiff,  whose  weakness  and 
whose  pride  equally  provoked  attack,  dreaded  inva- 
sion from  a  power  which  he  had  fatally  offended, 
and  which  so  little  regulated  its  movements  by  the 
usual  motives  of  apparent  interest  and  prudence. 
Blake,  casting  anchor  before  Leghorn,  demanded 
and  obtained  reparation  from  the  duke  of  Tuscany 
for  some  losses  which  English  commerce  had  for- 
merly sustained  from  him.    The  fleet  next  sailed  to 

•  Neale,  vol  2,  p.  406. 

t  Guizot,  Vauglian,  Ludlow's  Memoirs. 


I 


Algiers,  and  compelled  the  dey  to  make  peace,  and 
to  restrain  his  piratical  subjects  from  further  vio- 
lence on  the  English.  Blake  next  presented  him- 
self before  Tunis,  and  having  made  there  the  same 
demand,  the  dey  told  him  to  look  to  the  castles  of 
Porto  Farino  and  Galetta,  and  do  his  utmost.  The 
fiery  admiral  required  no  second  bidding;  and 
drawing  up  his  ships  close  to  the  castles,  tore  them 
to  pieces  with  his  artillery.  He  sent  a  detachment 
of  soldiers  in  their  long-boats  into  the  harbor,  and. 
burned  every  vessel  that  lay  moored  there.  This 
bold  action,  whose  very  temerity  perhaps  rendered 
it  safe,  was  executed  with  little  loss,  and  it  filled  all 
Christendom  with  the  renown  of  English  valor,"* 
and  with  dread  of  the  Protectorate. 

Such  was  the  foreign  record,  in  so  far  at  least 
as  it  affects  the  Puritans,  of  England  under  Crom- 
well :  bound  by  sincere  friendship  to  all  the  Prot- 
estant states,  in  active  alliance  with  the  most  pow- 
erful Komanist  sovereigns — everywhere  present, 
respected,  influential,  and  feared.t 

Foreign  visitors,  accustomed  to  the  soft,  effemi- 
nate graces  of  the  continental  courts,  could  never 
quite  comprehend  the  earnest  sternness  of  the  Pro- 
tector's government.  "I  am  now  in  England," 
wrote  the  Yenetian  ambassador  Giovanni  Sagredo, 
who  had  come  to  London  from  Paris  in  October, 
1656,  and  now  sent  back  his  impressions  in  the 

*  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  396  ;  Russell's  Life  of  Cromwell, 
t  Guizot,  vol.  2,  p.  244;  T.  Cromwell's  Life  and  Tiines  of 
Cromwell. 


tJOV 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


peculiar  style  of  his  age  and  country ;  "  the  aspect 
of  this  island  is  very  different  from  that  of  France : 
here  we  do  not  see  ladies  going  to  court,  but  gen- 
tlemen courting  the  chase;  not  elegant  cavaliers, 
but  cavalry  and  infantry ;  instead  of  music  and  bal- 
lets, they  have  drums  and  trumpets ;  they  do  not 
speak  of  love,  but  of  Mars ;  they  have  no  comedies, 
but  tragedies ;  no  patches  on  their  faces,  but  guns 
on  their  shoulders ;  they  do  not  neglect  sleep  for 
the  sake  of  amusement,  but  severe  ministers  keep 
their  flocks  in  incessant  watchfulness.  In  a  word, 
every  thing  here  is  full  of  disdain,  suspicion,  and 
rough,  menacing  faces."* 

Probably  the  Italian  diplomat  missed  his  wont- 
ed revels  and  his  love-sick  haunts,  and  his  chagrin 
bubbled  over  in  epigrams.  It  may  certainly  be  con- 
ceded that  England,  under  the  Protectorate,  sober, 
earnest,  devout,  was  scarcely  calculated  to  be  the 
beau  ideal  residence  of  a  roystering  and  ribald  cav- 
alier. 

Still  the  pictures  of  the  Puritans  of  that  age  have 
been  sadly  distorted.  They  were  not  savage,  fanatical 
iconoclasts,  bent  on  the  demolition  of  all  that  was 
beautiful  in  architecture  and  in  letters.  Parliament, 
in  its  act  for  the  removal  of  popish  badges,  introduced 
an  express  clause  for  the  preservation  of  works  of 
art,  and  provided  that  their  ordinance  "  should  not 
extend  to  the  mutilation  of  any  image,  picture,  or 
coat  of  arms,  in  glass,  stone,  or  otherwise,  in  any 

•  Lettere  Inedite  di  Messar  Giovanni  Sagredo,  p.  29  ;  Venice, 

iS  *■:• 


THE  PROTECTORATE. 


385 


church,  chapel,  or  church-yard,  set  up  or  engraven 
for  a  monument  of  any  king,  prince,  nobleman,  or 
other  dead  person,  not  commonly  reputed  or  taken 
for  a  saint.*'^  And  that  this  statute,  even  with  its 
limitation,  was  never  fully  carried  out,  is  obvious 
from  thiB  fact  that  multitudes  of  statues  and  other 
Eomanist  monuments  still  stand  in  towns  and  ham- 
lets where  the  Parliament  had  full  sway.t 

"  It  is  common,"  remarks  Stoughton,  "  to  rep- 
resent Puritanism  as  a  grovelling  spirit,  which 
crushed  the  seeds  of  genius  and  literature.  So  far 
as  genius  was  occupied  in  the  investigation  of  re- 
ligious and  political  principles,  and  so  far  as  litera- 
ture was  employed  in  diffusing  their  resultSj  it  is 
very  unfair  to  charge  Puritanism  with  being  the 
enemy  of  either.  As  it  was  seen  in  the  doings  of 
the  leading  men  at  Oxford,  it  appeared  as  the  friend 
of  both.  It  animated  many  of  them  to  an  intense 
study  of  divinity,  with  such  an  application  of  the 
aids  of  philology,  criticism,  the  fathers,  the  school- 
men, and  modern  writers,  as  might  well  shame 
numbers  of  the  theologians  of  later  times.  The 
works  which  some  of  the  leading  Puritans  pro- 
duced under  the  Protectorate  are  monuments  of 
tli^ir  talents  and  attainments,  as  weU  as  of  their 
piety.  Baxter,  Owen,  Hume,  Charnock,  and  many 
more,  for  depth  of  thought,  compass  of  intelligence,  , 
and  occasional  power  and  even  feUcity  of  expres- 
sion, will  bear  comparison  with  the  most  boasted 
names  among  the  divines  of  any  country. 

*  Pari.  Hist. ;  Statutes  of  the  Bealm.         f  Stoughton,  p.  194. 

17 


Purltani. 


386 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THE  PROTECTORATE. 


387 


"  As  a  class,  the  Puritans  can  by  no  means  be 
said  to  have  cultivated  the  forms  of  poetry;  yet 
they  were  poets  in  spite  of  themselves.  They 
scorned  the  tales  of  romance,  but  their  imagina- 
tions were  pictured  over  with  the  facts  of  Scrip- 
ture. They  cared  little  for  Olympus  and  the  haunts 
of  the  muses,  but  they  daily  visited  the  hill  of 
Zion,  and  talked  with-prophets  and  apostles.  They 
frequented  not  the  scenes  of  classic  story,  but  they 
were  familiar  with  scenf^vmore  exquisitely  beauti- 
fill,  more  awfully  subliine.  Homer,  Pindar,  and 
Yirgil  perhaps  they  might  not  often  study,  but 
Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel  were  poets  whose 
rich  and  divine  utterances  were  on  their  lips  as 
household  words.  The  theatre  they  abhorred ; 
their  condemnation  Bf  its  impure  accessories  preju- 
diced them  against  the  richest  creations  of  the  dra- 
matic muse,  but  they  themselves  trod  an  infinitely 
nobler  stage,  in  the  presence  of  '  a  great  cloud  of 
witnesses.'  They  felt  that  they  were  a  spectacle 
to  the  world  and  to  angels.  Othefs  have  written 
wonderful  dramas ;  they  acted  one  more  wonderful 
than  was  ever  penned.  They  lived  much  in  an- 
other world,  and  there  they  walked  by  faith  in  the 
highest  realm  of  poetry.  *  Truly  their  lives  wera  a 
great  epic*  Nor  did  that  soul  of  poetry  which  dwelt 
within  them  fail  to  express  itself  in  their  writings 
and  conversation.  There  are  multitudes  of  pas- 
sages in  their  books  to  which  perhaps  some  critics 
would  point  as  teeming  with  enthusiasm,  which  are 
in  fact  redolent  with  the  genuine  spirit  of  poetry ; 


1 


i 


and  their  ordinary  speech,  so  often  ridiculed,  would 
sometimes  glitter  with  scriptural  allusions  instinct 
with  poetic  fire. 

"  As  to  the  lower  classes  among  the  Puritans, 
they  were,  to  say  the  least,  as  intelligent  as  their 
compeers  on  the  other  side.  If  they  were  ignorant 
of  elegant  literature,  they  knew  something  about 
the  Bible,  and  were  well  versed  in  the  writings  and 
sayings  of  popular  divines — knowledge  which,  even 
in  a  literary  point  of  view,  it  seems  a  desecration 
to  compare  with  the'loose  songs  and  scraps  of  rib- 
ald wit  which  formed  the  staple  of  Cavalier  learn- 
ing among  the  lower  orders.    « 

"  But  after  all,  did  Puritanism  altogether  lack 
sons  who  walked  in  the  paths  of  pohte  literature  ? 
Were  not  Harrington  and  Waller  and  Vane  and 
Marvel  Puritans  and  Commonwealthsmen  ?  Did 
they  not  meet  with  other  wits  and  poets  of  the  day 
in  true  literary  conclave  at  the  Turk's  Head  in  Pal- 
ace-yard, to  speculate  on  the  profoundest  themes, 
or  playfully  to  chat  together  in  conversation  sea- 
soned with  a  salt  as  pungent  as  any  Attic  wit? 
And  have  they  not  written  works  of  literary  renown 
which  all  parties  have  since  combined  to  praise? 
Was  not  Milton  a  Puritan  ?  Does  not  his  genius 
tower  above  all  other  men's  since  the  days  when 
Shakspeare  wrote?  For  the  solitary  grandeur  of 
his  muse,  and  for  all  its  wayward  aberrations  too, 
he  may  be  hkened  to  his  own 

'*  •  Wandering  moon, 
Riding  near  his  highest  noon. 


v*w> 


388         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

Like  one  that  hath  been  led  astray, 
Through  the  heaven's  wide,  pathless  way.'"© 

The  Puritans  of  the  Protectorate  then  were  no 
horde  of  vulgar  fanatics,  no  herd  of  tasteless, 
gloomy  ascetics — consumere  fruges  nati — born  only 
to  eat.  No ;  they  had  a  work,  and  God  graced 
them  with  the  talent  and  the  culture  as  well  as 
with  the  dauntless  courage  necessary  to  its  per- 
formance. 

In  1656,  good  Bishop  Hall  expired.  "  His  prac- 
tical works,"  says  Neale,  "  have  been  held  in  great 
esteem  among  dissenters.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
troubles  between  the  king  and  the  Parliament,  Dr. 
Hall  published  several  treatises  in  favor  of  dioce- 
san Episcopacy,  which  were  answered  by  Smec- 
tymnus  and  by  Milton.  He  was  afterwards  impris- 
oned in  the  tower  with  the  rest  of  the  protesting 
bishops :  upon  his  release  he  retired  to  Norwich ; 
the  revenues  of  which  bishopric  being  soon  seques- 
tered, together  with  his  own  real  and  personal  es- 
tate, he  was  forced  to  be  content  with  the  fifths. 
The  parliamentary  soldiers  used  him  severely,  turn- 
ing him  out  of  his  palace,  and  threatening  to  sell 
his  books,  which  they  would  have  done  had  not  a 
friend  given  a  bond  for  the  money  at  which  they 
were  appraised.  Dr.  Hall  complained  very  justly 
of  this  usage  in  a  pamphlet,  entitled,  *  Hard  Meas- 
ure.' At  length  Parliament  made  him  some  amends, 
voting  him  forty  pounds  a  year ;  and  when  the  war 
was  ended  his  estate  was  restored  to  him,  and  he 

«  Stoughton,  pp.  224-228. 


THE  PROTECTOBATE. 


389 


\ 


' 


lived  peaceably  ever  after,  spending  his  solitude  in 
acts  of  charity  and  in  divine  meditation.  He  has 
been  frequently  called  the  English  Seneca,  for  the 
pureness,  plainness,  and  fulness  of  his  style."* 

In  September,  1657,  Parliament,  a  "  shrew"  now 
"tamed"  into  Cromwell's  peaceful  help-meet,  con- 
firmed the  de  facto  government,  and  proffered  the 
crown  to  the  Lord  Protector.t  Although  tendered 
in  the  most  solemn  manner,  it  was  refused,  some 
say  because  Cromwell's  own  stern  republican  recti- 
tude withheld  him  from  the  assumption  of  royalty  \X 
others,  because  he  feared  that  his  acceptance  would 
alienate  the  affection  of  the  army,  always  demo- 
cratic in  its  principles,  and  bitterly  opposed  to  the 
name  of  king.§  "  Most  historians,"  remarks  Hume, 
"are  inclined  tor  blame  the  Protector's  choice;  but 
he  must  be  allowed  to  be  the  best  judge  of  his  own 
situation.  And  in  such  complicated  subjects,  the 
alteration  of  a  very  minute  circumstance,  unknown 
to  the  spectator,  will  often  be  sufficient  to  cast  the 
balance,  and  render  a  determination,  which  in  itself 
may  be  ineligible,  very  prudent,  or  even  absolutely 
necessary  to  the  actor."|| 

The  last  years  of  the  Protectorate  were  as  pros- 
perous and  glorious  as  its  opening  months.  The 
war  with  Spain  was  grandly  successful.  Blake 
blockaded  the  harbor  of  Cadiz,  sunk  the  Spanish 

♦  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  417,  418. 

f  Pari.  Hist. ;  Godwin,  Hist.  Commonwealth ;  Guizot. 
X  Forster,  Carlyle,  Headley.  §  Clarendon,  Hume,  etc. 

il  Hume,  voL'2,  p.  403. 


390 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


fleet,  and  captured  plate  to  the  value  of  two  million 
pounds,  which  was  brought  to  London  from  Ports- 
mouth in  carts,  and  coined  in  the  tower.*  "Winter- 
ing on  the  coast  of  Spain,  Blake,  in  the  summer  of 
1657,  repeated  his  exploit  with  still  greater  eclat. i 
The  island  of  Jamaica,  in  the  "West  Indies,  had  been 
previously  conquered,^  and  the  record  of  a  glorious 
year  was  fitly  rounded  into  perfect  symmetry  by  the 
capture  of  Dunkirk  by  Cromwell's  pikemen,  assisted 
by  the  French  battalions  of  Turenne.§  Mazarin 
intended  to  retain  that  strong-hold  in  his  own  hands, 
contrary  to  an  existing  treaty.  Cromwell's  spies 
acquainted  him  with  the  design,  and  sent  him  Maz- 
arin's  secret  order  to  that  effect.  The  French  am- 
bassador was  sent  for;  when  he  reached  Whitehall, 
the  Protector  mentioned  the  intended  breach  of 
contract;  the  diplomat  denied  it;  whereupon  Crom- 
well took  from  his  pocket  the  cardinal's  private  di- 
rections, and  desired  the  astounded  ambassador  to 
let  his  eminence  know  that  if  the  kevs  of  Dunkirk 
were  not  delivered  to  his  ambassador  Lockhart 
within  an  hour  after  its  capture,  he  would  come  in 
person  and  demand  them  at  the  gates  of  Paris.  It 
is  needless  to  add  that  Lockhart  took  possession 
within  the  hour.ll  This  conquest  added  fresh  lustre 
to  the  Protector's  administration,  since  it  was  no 
empty  trophy,  but  gave  the  English  a  foothold  on 

o  Thurlow's  State  Papers  ;  Clarendon's  Hist.  Reb. ;  Godwin, 
t  Ibid.  X  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  396, 

§  Hist,  et  Mem.  du  Vicomte  de  Turenne,  vol.  2,  pp.  360-375  ; 
Godwin;  Clarendon;  Mem.  Historiques,  vol.  1,  p.  167,  et  seq., 
etc.  II  Godwin,  Neale,  Foreter. 


THE  PBOTKCTOEATE. 


391 


( 


the  Continent,  and  made  them  masters  of  both  sides 
of  the  Channel. 

At  about  this  same  time  Cromwell  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  redressing  the  wrongs  of  the  Huguenots, 
as  he  had  already  redressed  those  of  the  Vaudois 
Piedmontese.  On  being  apprized  of  certain  ultra- 
montane tumults  at  Nismes,  which  the  court  of  Louis 
XIV.  intended  to  make  the  pretext  for  a  general 
onslaught  upon  the  reformed,  the  Protector  dis- 
patched an  express  to  Mazarin  vetoing  the  crusade ; 
and  he  at  the  same  time  instructed  the  English  am- 
bassador to  insist  upon  the  cessation  of  all  hostile 
movements,  and  in  case  his  eminence  did  not  com- 
ply, to  demand  his  passports  and  to  quit  the  court. 
Mazarin  complained  of  this  as  high  and  imperious ; 
but  so  great  was  his  awe  of  Cromwell,  that  he  has- 
tened to  stop  the  expedition,  and  to  reestablish  the 
entente  cordiale.* 

This  intervention,  like  that  for  the  Vaudois,  was 
bruited  throughout  Christendom,  and  foreign  Prot- 
estantism felt  itself  strengthened  and  vivified  when 
sheltered  beneath  the  august  segis  of  the  Protecto- 
rate. In  those  days  England  dictated  law  to  the 
whole  Continent.  Whitehall  did  not  then  stoop  to 
to  be  the  lackey  of  the  Tuilleries. 

But  the  end  approached.  The  Protector's  health, 
broken  by  excessive  toil  and  advancing  age,  began 
to  fail.  At  length,  on  the  3d  of  September,  1658, 
the  anniversary  of  his  triumphs  at  Dunbar  and  at 
Worcester,!  the  cord  of  life  snapped,  and  the  Puri- 

•  Neale,  voL  2,  p.  416.  t  Cailyle,  Godwin,  Forster. 


392 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


tan  soldier  and  statesman,  then  in  Lis  sixtieth  year, 
lay  dead  in  his  palace  at  Whitehall  * 

His  last  words  were  a  prayer,  like  himself, 
unique,  unprecedented,  sublime:  "Lord,  I  am  a 
poor,  foolish  creature :  this  people  would  fain  have 
me  live ;  they  think  it  best  for  them,  and  that  it 
will  redound  much  to  thy  glory ;  and  all  the  stir  is 
about  this.  Others  would  fain  have  me  die.  Lord, 
pardon  them,  and  pardon  thy  foolish  people ;  for- 
give their  sins,  and  do  not  forsake  them,  but  love 
and  bless  and  give  them  rest,  and  bring  them  to  a 
consistency ;  and  give  me  rest,  for  Jesus  Christ's 
sake,  to  whom,  with  thee  and  thy  Holy  Spirit,  be 
all  honor  and  glory,  now  and  for  ever.    Amen."t 

•  Carlyle,  Godwin,  Forster,  Vaughan. 

t  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  438  ;  Carlyle,  Vaughan. 


JUDAS. 


393 


ii 


CHAPTEE  XXIX. 


JUDAS. 


The  death  of  the  Protector  conjured  up  chaos. 
A  smiling  but  treacherous  calm  of  five  months  du- 
ration did  indeed  ensue.  It  took  so  long  for  Eng- 
land to  shake  off  the  spell  of  Cromwell's  genius. 
The  Protector's  son  and  heir,  Richard  Cromwell, 
was  proclaimed.  Congratulatory  addresses  greeted 
the  new.  government ;  the  Presbyterians,  who  had 
been  hostile  to  the  father,  were  friendly  to  the  son; 
and  "  all  went  merry  as  a  marriage-bell." 

But  Eichard  Cromwell  resembled  his  father  only 
in  name.  Weak,  ineflScient,  retiring,  the  best  that 
can  be  said  of  him  is,  that  he  was  a  gentleman,  and 
that  he  could  pass  a  chair  or  hand  a  dish  with  rare 
grace.*  These  are  not  the  quahties  which  consti- 
tute a  statesmanship  skilled  and  able  to  hold  the- 
helm  in  boisterous  times ;  and  the  new  Protectorate 
soon  drifted  on  the  rocks. 

Parliament,  divided  between  secret  royalists  and 
open  republicans,  began  a  factious  opposition  to 
the  continued  existence  of  the  abnormal  situation.t 
The  army,  also  split  into  two  factions,  Common- 
wealthsmen  and  Presbyterians,  began  to  bicker  and 
to  chafe.     The  democrats,  headed  by  a  cabal  of 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times  ;  Neale,  Whitelocke. 
t  Hume,  Burnet,  Godwin. 

17* 


394        HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

officers,  dragooned  the  Protector  into  dissolving  the 
Parliament,  his  main  support.*  A  council  of  mili- 
tary men  assumed  authority.  The  feeble  pigmy 
who  masqueraded  as  Protector,  perplexed  and  ter- 
rified, at  once  resigned  his  dignity,  and  after  a  reign 
of  eight  months,  sank  into  congenial  obscurity.t 

In  the  mean  time  Monk,  who  commanded  in 
Scotland,  began  to  move.  The  Puritan  regiments 
in  the  north  witnessed  these  revolutions  with  an 
indignation  which  resembled  that  of  the  Roman 
legions  posted  on  the  Danube  and  the  Euphrates, 
when  they  learned  that  the  empire  had  been  put 
up  to  sale  by  the  praetorian  guards.  It  wjis  intol- 
erable that  certain  squadrons  should,  merely  be- 
cause they  chanced  to  be  quartered  at  Westmin- 
ster, take  on  themselves  to  make  and  unmake  sev- 
eral governments  in  six  months.  If  it  were  fit  that 
the  state  should  be  regulated  by  soldiers,  then  those 
soldiers  who  upheld  the  English  ascendency  on  the 
north  of  the  Tweed  were  as  well  entitled  to  a  voice 
as  those  who  garrisoned  the  Tower  of  London.^ 

Thus,  while  the  army  rose  against  the  Parlia- 
ment, the  different  corps  of  the  army  rose  against 
each  other.  Without  a  head,  society  itseK  dis- 
solved. The  people  everywhere  refused  to  pay 
taxes.  The  title-deeds  of  the  magistrates  were 
questioned.  Sect  raved  against  sect;  party  plot- 
ted against  party .§ 


JUDAS. 


395 


•  Hnme,  Btimet,  Godwin. 

f  Burnet's  Own  Times,  Vanghan,  etc. 

%  Macanley,  Hist.  Eng.  ;  Guizot,  Clarendon. 


§  Ibid. 


1 


Monk  advanced  and  entered  London  in  1659. 
A  painful  hush  succeeded.  He  was  felt  to  be  the 
arbiter  of  the  national  fate.  The  republicans  be- 
sought him  to  confirm  the  Commonwealth ;  the  roy- 
alists urged  him  to  declare  for  the  king ;  the  Pres- 
byterians, forming  an  aUiance  with  the  Cavaliers, 
cried  Amen  to  this  programme,  but  spoke  of  terms, 
and  wished  to  secure  the  establishment  of  their  dis- 
cipline in  England,  as  the  sine  qua  non  of  the  return 
of  the  exiled  Stuarts.*  Neither  of  these  parties 
dared  initiate  a  movement  in  support  of  their  plans. 
The  dread  of  that  invincible  army  was  the  spell 
which  tied  all  hands ;  and  even  though  divided  and 
betrayed,  it  was  still  irresistible.  Monk's  impor- 
tance grew  out  of  the  fact  that  he  controlled  so 
many  disciplined  regiments.t 

At  last  Monk  acted ;  the  "  Rump  "  Parliament 
was  convened.  "Those  Presbyterian  members  of 
the  House  of  Commons  who  had  many  years  before 
been  expelled  by  the  army  returned  to  their  seats, 
and  were  hailed  with  acclamations  by  great  multi- 
tudes who  thronged  Westminster  Hall  and  Palace- 
yard.  The  Independent  leaders  no  longer  ventured 
to  show  their  faces  in  the  streets,  and  were  scarcely 
safe  in  their  own  dwellings.  Temporary  provision 
was  made  for  the  government,  writs  were  issued  for 
a  general  election,  and  then  that  memorable  Par- 
liament which  had,  during  twenty  years,  experi- 
enced every  variety  of  fortune,  which  had  triumph- 

*  Neale,  vol.  2,  chap.  4,  passim ;  Godwin,  Baxter, 
f  Clarendon,  Burnet,  etc. 


396 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PIJRITAN8. 


ed  over  its  sovereign,  which  had  been  enslaved  and 
degraded  by  its  servants,  which  had  been  twice 
ejected  and  twice  restored,  solemnly  decreed  its 
own  dissolution."* 

The  army,  without  a  leader,  the  sport  of  a  doz- 
en restless  and  aspiring  officers,  looked  on  in  sullen, 
ominous,  but  despairing  discontent.  The  republi- 
cans made  a  last  rally,  and  Milton  issued  a  pamph- 
let, in  which  he  pointed  out  the  "ready  and  easy 
way  to  establish  a  commonwealth,"  and  expressed 
the  hope  that  what  he  said  might  not  prove  "  the 
la&t  words  of  expiring  liberty."t 

These  efforts  were  all  vain.  The' people — some 
mad  with  love  of  change,  some  from  self-interest, 
some  from  a  longing  for  a  stable  government,  some 
from  disgust  at  the  excesses  of  the  past,  and  some 
from  real  attachment  to  the  ancient  monarchy — the 
people  pronounced  in  favor  of  the  restoration  of  the 
Constitution.  "  It  is  to  be  noted,"  remarks  Macau- 
ley,  "  that  the  two  great  parties  of  the  Koundheads 
and  the  Cavaliers  had  never  been  the  whole  nation ; 
nay,  that  they  had  never,  taken  together,  made  up 
a  majority  of  the  nation.  Between  them  had  always 
been  a  gi'eat  mass  which  had  not  steadfastly  ad- 
hered to  either,  which  had  sometimes  remained 
inertly  neutral,  and  had  sometimes  oscillated  to  and 
fro.  That  mass  had  more  than  once  passed,  in  a 
few  years,  from  one  extreme  to  the  other  and  back 
again.    Sometimes  it  changed  sides  merely  because 

•  Macanley,  Hist.  Eng.,  vol.  1,  p.  115. 
t  Milton,  Prose  Works,  vol.  6. 


JUDAS. 


397 


it  was  tired  of  supporting  the  same  men,  sometimes 
because  it  was  dismayed  by  its  own  excesses,  some- 
times because  it  had  expected  impossibilities,  and 
had  been  disappointed.  But  whenever  it  had  leaned 
with  its  whole  weight  in  either  direction,  resistance 
had  for  the  time  been  impossible."* 

The  elections  proved  that  one  of  these  spasr 
modic  social  revolutions  was  now  occurring.  The 
new  Parliament  consisted  of  a  coalition  of  Cavaliers 
and  Presbyterians.  The  Lords  once  more  reentered 
that  hall  from  which  they  had  been  excluded  through 
eleven  years.t  Then  the  two  houses  proceeded  to 
invite  Charles  Stuart  to  stop  hunting  in  the  bogs  of 
France,  to  cease  skulking  through  the  courts  of 
Europe,  to  quit  the  arms  of  his  continental  mis- 
tresses sufficiently  long  to  come  to  England  and 
reascend  the  throne  of  his  fathers.  J 

The  great  quarrel  which  liberty  has  with  this 
action  and  with  Monk's  approval  of  it  is,  that  no 
guarantee  was  demanded,  no  terms  were  made,  no 
limits  were  imposed  on  this  roue  sovereign  who  was 
invited  to  reign,  at  a  time  when  all  might  have  been 
and  should  have  been  exacted.  A  simple  declara- 
tion, made  at  Breda,  in  Brabant,  while  he  was  yet 
a  fugitive,  in  which  Charles  promised,  among  other 
things,  "  such  liberty  for  tender  consciences  that  no 
.  man  should  be  called  in  question  for  religious  opin- 
ions loliich  did  not  disturb  the  state  "^  was  the  silly 

*  Macauley,  vol.  \  p.  73. 

f  Since  the  inauguration  of  the  Commonwealth,  in  1649. 

I  Pari.  Hist.,  Hume,  Clarendon. 

§  Clarendon,  vol.  3,  p.  772 ;  Whitclocko's  Memorials,  p.  702. 


398 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


bait  wbich  caught  these  gudgeons.  The  Presbyte- 
rians swallowed  it  whole,  oyerlooking  the  last  clause, 
which  was  a  sufficient  warrant  for  the  suppression 
of  Presbyterianism  itself,  on  the  plea  that  it  was 
inimical  to  the  government.  They  even  expected 
that  Charles  would  adopt  their  discipline  as  the 
national  creed.*  And  so  the  Parliament,  encour- 
aged by  the  Presbyterians  and  by  the  aid  of  Monk, 
the  Judas  of  British  politics,  without  casting  one 
glance  at  the  past  or  requiring  one  stipulation  for 
the  future,  threw  down  the  freedom  of  three  king- 
doms at  the  feet  of  the  most  frivolous  and  heartless 
of  tyrants. 

On  the  26th  of  May,  1660,  Charles  II.  landed  at 
Dover.  Three  days  later  he  rode  in  triumph  through 
the  jubilant  metropolis  to  the  palace  of  Whitehall.t 
Foohsh  England  went  mad  with  joy.  At  night  the 
sky  was  reddened  by  countless  bonfires ;  there  was 
an  incessant  peal  of  bells;  the  gutters  ran  with  ale.f 

"Then  came  those  days  never  to  be  recalled 
without  a  blush,  the  days  of  servitude  without  loy- 
alty, of  sensuality  without  love,  of  dwarfish  talents 
and  gigantic  vices,  the  paradise  of  cold  hearts  and 
narrow  minds,  the  golden  age  of  the  coward,  the 
bigot,  and  the  slave.  The  king  cringed  to  his  rival 
that  he  might  trample  on  his  people,  sank  into  a 
viceroy  of  Prance,  and  pocketed  with  complacent. 

*  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  464-469 ;  Baxter's  Life  and  Times. 
f  Whitelocke's  Memorials,  p.  702 ;  Evefyn's  Diary,  vol,  2,  p. 
148 ;  Clarendon,  Hume. 

%  Evelyn's  Diary,  "Whitelocke's  Memorials,  Clarendon. 


JUDAS. 


399 


i\ 


infamy  her  degrading  insults  and  her  more  degrad- 
ing gold.  The  government  had  just  ability  enough 
to  deceive,  and  just  rehgion  enough  to  persecute. 
The  principles  of  liberty  were  the  scoff  of  every 
grinning  courtier  amd  the  anathema  maranatha  of 
every  fawning  dean.  In  every  high  place  worship 
was  paid  to  Charles  and  James,  Belial  and  Moloch ; 
and  England  propitiated  those  obscene  and  cruel 
idols  with  the  blood  of  her  best  and  bravest  chil- 
dren. Crime  succeeded  to  crime,  disgrace  to  dis- 
grace, until  the  race,  accursed  of  .God  and  man,  was 
a  second  time  driven  forth  to  wander  on  the  face  of 
the  earth,  and  to  be  a  by-word  and  a  shaking  of  the 
head  to  the  nations."* 

•  Macauley,  Essay  on  Milton. 


400        HISTORY  OP  THE  PUBITANS. 


CHAPTEE    XXX. 

THE  RESTOKATION. 

Under  the  Kestoration,  the  theology,  the  man- 
ners, and  the  dialect  of  the  Puritans  became  a  scoff 
and  a  reproach,  and  the  outcry  was  swollen  by  the 
voices  of  those  "  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort"  who 
had  been  roughly  repressed  by  the  precisionists. 
To  a  certain  extent  the  Puritans  had  brought  upon 
themselves  this  storm  of  unpopularity.  The  people 
had  been  vexed  by  the  interdiction  of  their  favorite 
games,  and  fretted  by  a  legal  code  which  enforced 
the  subversion  of  all  the  most  popular  amuse- 
ments. May-poles  were  hewn  down ;  rope-dancing, 
puppet-shows,  bowling,  horse -racing,  wrestling- 
matches,  theatricals — every  diversion,  from  masks 
in  the  manor-houses  to  grinning-matches  on  the 
village  greens,  was  placed  under  a  judicial  ban.* 

The  Puritans  meant  in  this  to  subserve  the 
interests  of  morality,  but  their  indiscrimination 
balked  them  of  success,  and  covered  them  with 
odium.  Eecreation  is  essential  both  to  happiness 
and  to  health ;  therefore  it  is  eminently  necessary 
to  distinguish  between  proper  and  improper  amuse- 
ments; and  while  we  discoimtenance  the  one,  we 


o  Statutes  of  the  Realm ;  Godwin,  Hist,  of  Commonwealth ; 
Clarendon. 


THE  RESTORATION. 


401 


ought  to  encourage  the  other.    The  Puritans  did 
not  make  this  distinction. 

Then,  again,  the  church  as  a  church  has  no  co- 
ercive authority.  It  may  and  it  should  use  every 
moral  weapon  in  its  warfare  against  vice.  It  may 
and  it  should  rest  its  lever  upon  every  spiritual  ful- 
crum in  its  effort  to  lift  the  world  out  of  criminal 
sloughs.  But  when  the  church  attempts  to  compel 
men  to  be  moral  by  civil  penalties,  it  quits  its  legit- 
imate domain  and  usurps  the  sword.  Its  members 
may,  as  citizens,  bar  out  immorality  and  all  incite- 
ments to  vicious  ways ;  but  in  this,  while  the  motor 
power  is  religion,  the  agency  is  statesmanship ;  and 
Christians  should  achieve  their  purpose  not  through 
ecclesiastical,  but  through  political  forms.  Un- 
doubtedly the  state  is  armed  with  authority  to  sup- 
press vice ;  for  liberty  is  not  license,  and  the  social 
compact  presupposes  the  existence  of  a  reserved 
right  to  protect  society  against  the  insidious  en- 
croachments of  the  abettors  of  immorality.  The 
civil  magistrate  is  under  bonds  to  God  and  man  to 
see  that  vice,  that  protean  sapper  of  social  order, 
is  not  left  to  flaunt  unchecked. 

We  do  not  plead  therefore  for  the  immunity  of 
immorality ;  for  immorality,  whatever  garb  it  may 
put  on,  is  a  crime  entitled  to  no  terms ;  we  simply 
deny  the  authority  of  the  church  as  a  church  to 
wield  a  sword  which  legitimately  belongs  to  the 
civil  magistrate. 

Besides,  while  thus  busied  in  correcting  the 
public  morals,  not  legitimately  by  exhortation  and 


402 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


by  practice,  but  by  penal  legislation,  Puritanism 
Buffered  in  its  own.   It  has  been  well  said,  that  "  the 
ordinary  tendency  of  sects  is  to  attain  a  high  repu- 
tation for  sanctity  while  they  are  oppressed,  and  to 
lose  it  in  prosperity ;  and  the  reason  is  obvious.    It 
is  seldom  that  a  man  enrolls  himself  in  a  proscribed 
body  from  any  but  conscientious  motives.     Such  a 
body  therefore  is  composed,  with  scarcely  an  ex- 
ception, of  sincere  persons.     The  most  rigid  disci- 
pline that  can  be  enforced  within  a  religious  soci- 
ety, is  a  very  feeble  instrument  of  purification  com- 
pared with  a  sharp  persecution  from  without.     We 
may  be  certain  that  very  few  persons,  not  seriously 
impressed  by  religious  conviction,  applied  for  bap- 
tism while  Diocletian  was  vexing  the  church,  or 
joined  themselves  to  Protestant  congregations  at 
the  risk  of  being  burned  by  Bonner.    But  when  a 
sect  becomes  powerful,  when  its  favor  is  the  road 
to  riches  and  dignities,  worldly  and  ambitious  men 
crowd  into  it,  talk  its  language,  conform  strictly  to 
its  ritual,  mimic  its  peculiarities,  and  frequently  go  ' 
beyond  its  honest  members  in  all  the  outward  indi- 
cations of  zeal.     No  discernment,  no  watchfulness 
on  the  part  of  ecclesiastical  rulers  can  prevent  the 
intrusion  of  such  false  brethren.   The  tares  and  the 
wheat  must  grow  together.     Soon  the  world  sus- 
pects that  the  godly  are  not  better  than  other  men, 
and  concludes  that  if  not  better,  they  must  be 
worse.    In  no  long  time  all  those  signs  which  wore 
formerly  regarded  as  the  characteristics  of  a  saint, 
are  regarded  as  the  characteristics  of  a  knave." 


THE  EESTORATION. 


403 


I 


So  it  was  with  Puritanism ;  ambitious  men,  licen- 
tious men  imitated  the  sober  dress,  straight  hair, 
the  speech  interspersed  with  quaint  texts,  the  aver- 
sion to  comedies,  which  were  the  badges  of  the  par- 
liamentarians;  and  then,  after  their  villany  had 
helped  to  bring  "the  good  old  cause"  to  ruin, 
turned  about  and  loaded  it  with  abuse  as  a  refuge 
of  dissenting  mountebanks. 

The  injury  which  Puritanism  thus  suffered  in 
its  morale,  together  with  the  ultra-strictness  of  its 
regime,  brought  it  into  general  contempt  at  the 
Kestoration.  Profane  wits  levelled  their  epigrams 
at  it ;  Cavaliers  cursed  it  in  their  drink ;  and  the 
people,  long  compelled  to  an  extreme  of  austerity 
by  statute,  now  rushed  to  an  extreme  of  license 
from  choice.  England  became  a  haunt  of  baccha- 
nals. "  Drab  colored  "  Puritanism  was  succeeded 
by  scarlet  colored  profligacy.  Oxford  was  once 
more  revolutionized.  Its  own  partial  historian 
makes  this  record :  "  The  hope  of  the  Kestoration 
made  the  scholars  talk  loud,  drink  healths,  and 
curse  Meroz  in  the  very  streets;  insomuch  that 
when  the  king  came  in,  nay,  when  he  was  voted  in, 
they  were  not  only  like  men  in  a  dream,  but  like 
men  out  of  their  wits — mad,  stark,  staring  mad. 
To  study  was  fanatical ;  to  be  moderate  was  down- 
right rebellion."*  Neale  adds  these  touches  to 
Wood's  picture  :  "  There  was  a  general  licentious- 
ness of  manners  among  the  students ;  the  sermons 
of  the  younger  divines  were  filled  with  encomiums 

*  Anth.  Wood,  Hist,  and  Antiquities  of  Oxford. 


404        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THE  RESTORATION. 


405 


upon  the  olden  rule,  and  with  satire  against  the 
Puritans ;  the  evangelical  doctrines — faith,  charity, 
and  practical  rehgion — were  out  of  date."* 

In  every  respect  "  the  times  which  followed  the 
Eestoration  were  the  reverse  of  those  that  preceded 
it;  for  the  laws  which  had  been  enacted  against 
vice  for  the  last  twenty  years  were  declared  null, 
the  magistrates  were  changed,  and  men  set  no 
bounds  to  their  licentiousness.  The  loyalty  of 
loose  and  riotous  Cavaliers  consisted  in  drinking 
healths  and  railing  at  all  who  would  not  join  in 
their  revels.  The  king  was  at  the  head  of  these 
disorders;  he  had  given  himself  up  to  pleasure, 
and  devoted  his  time  to  lewdness.  His  bishops 
and  chaplains  complained  that  he  came  from  his 
mistresses'  apartments  to  church,  even  on  sacra- 
ment days.  Two  theatres  were  erected  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  court.  The  most  lewd  and 
obscene  plays  were  enacted,  and  these  Charles 
graced  with  his  presence.  The  court  became  an 
incarnate  revel,  and  nothing  was  seen  but  feasting, 
hard  drinking,  and  amorous  intrigues,  which  en- 
gendered the  most  atrocious  vices.  From  the  court 
the  contagion  spread  Uke  wild-fire  among  the  peo-. 
pie,  insomuch  that  men  threw  off  the  very  profes- 
sion of  virtue  and  piety.  Under  color  of  drinking 
the  king's  health,  all  kinds  of  CavaHer  debauchery 
revived ;  and  the  appearance  of  religion  which  re- 
mained with  some,  furnished  matter  of  ridicule  to 
libertines  and  scoffers."t 

♦  Neale,  yoI.  2,  pp.  543-554  t  R>id.,  p.  477. 


1 


■  il 


The  Puritans,  out  of  date  and  covered  with 
abuse,  looked  on  these  scenes  grief-stricken.  The 
Independents  had  little  to  hope.  They  had  been 
Cromwell's  peculiar  friends.  The  Baptists  were 
strongly  republican;  they  had  opposed  the  Pro- 
tector's government  at  the  outset,  but  gradually 
the  great  body  of  their  churches  made  their  sub- 
mission, and  enjoyed  the  esteem  and  protection  of 
the  yeoman  prince.*  The  most  then  that  these 
sects  ventured  to  petition  for  was  toleration.t 

The  Presbyterians  had  higher  hopes.  They  had 
opposed  Cromwell ;  they  had  been  most  influential 
in  restoring  the  Stuarts ;  and  their  egregious  cre- 
dulity led  them  to  believe  that  the  Establishment 
would  be  stretched  to  embrace  them.J 

At  the  outset  the  court  encouraged  this  belief. 
The  Presbyterians  were  soothed  and  caressed;  sev- 
eral of  their  most  eminent  clergy  were  added  to  the 
Hst  of  the  king's  chaplains  in  ordinary,  and  Calamy 
and  Baxter  each  preached  once  at  court.§ 

The  fact  should  seem  to  be  that  in  the  disputes 
which  divided  his  Protestant  subjects,  the  king's 
conscience  was  not  at  all  ii^erested,  for  his  opin- 
ions then  oscillated  in  a  state  of  contented  suspense 
between  infidelity  and  popery;  he  was  an  infidel 
when  well,  and  a  Komanist  when  sick.  Macauley 
paints  this  portrait  of  the  monarch  :  "  Charles  pos- 

*  Crosby's  and  Ivimey's  Hist,  of  the  Baptists, 
f  Newell,  Baxter,  Clarendon,  Neale. 
X  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  475-486;  Newell,  p.  323. 
§  Ibid. ;  Evelyn's  Diary  ;  Whitelocke. 


406         HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

sessed  social  habits,,  polite  and  engaging  manners, 
and  some  talent  for  lively  conversation;  he  was 
addicted  beyond  measure  to   sensual  indulgence, 
fond  of  sauntering  and  of  frivolous  amusements, 
incapable  of  self-denial  and  of  exertion,  detested 
state  business,  was  without  faith  in  human  virtue 
or  human  attachment,  without  desire  of  renown, 
and  without  sensibility  to  reproach.     According  to 
him  every  one  was  to  be  bought.    But  some -people 
haggled  more  about  their  price  than  others ;  and 
where  this  haggling  was  very  obstinate  and  very 
skilful,  it  was  called  by  some  fine  name.    The  chief 
trick  by  which  clever  men  kept  up  the  price  of  their 
abilities  was  called  integrity.     The  chief  trick  by 
which  handsome  women  kept  up  the  price  of  their 
beauty  was  called  modesty.     The  love  of  God,  the 
love  of  country,  the  love  of  family,  the  love  of 
friends,  were  phrases  of  the  same  sort,  delicate  and 
convenient  synonyms  for  the  love  of  self.      But 
though  the  king's  conscience  was  neutral  in  the 
quarrel  between  Episcopacy  and  Presbyterianism, 
his  prejudices  and  his  tastes  were  by  no  means  so. 
His  favorite  vices  wer#precisely  those  to  which  the 
Puritans  were  least  indulgent.    He  could  not  get 
through  a  day  without  the  help  of  diversions  which 
the  Non-conformists  regarded  as  sinful.    Besides, 
as  a  man  emmently  well  bred,  and  keenly  sensible 
of  the  ridiculous,  he  was  moved  to  contemptuous 
mirth  by  the  oddities  of  Puritanism."*    Indeed  he 
was  accustomed  to  say,  "  Puritanism  is  a  religion 

•  Macauley,  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  1,  pp.  133,  134. 


THE  RESTORATION. 


407 


J 


unfit  for  a  gentleman."*  He  was  right;  it  was 
unfit  for  a  gentleman  of  that  day,  for  it  was  a  relig- 
ion of  the  people.  Still,  Charles  wished  to  lay 
asleep  old  controversies.  He  also  desired  to  tol- 
erate that  Komish  creed  towards  which  he  already 
leaned.  This  he  could  not  hope  to  do  unless  he 
proclaimed  a  general  toleration.  To  this  purpose 
he  now  lent  himself  with  a  kind  of  lazy  noncha- 
lance. 

The  moderate  Presbyterians  of  the  school  of 
Baxter  were  anxious  to  effect  a  compromise  with 
the  moderate  Episcopalians  of  the  school  of  Usher. 
The  moderates  of  one  party  admitted  that  a  bishop 
might  lawfully  be  assisted  by  a  council ;  the  mod- 
erates of  the  other  acknowledged  that  each  provin- 
cial assembly  might  lawfully  have  a  permanent 
president,  and  that  this  officer  might  he  styled  a 
bishop.  In  Baxter's  mind  the  desideratum  was  a 
revised  liturgy  which  should  not  exclude  extempo- 
raneous prayer,  a  baptismal  service  in  which  the 
sign  of  the  cross  was  optional,  a  communion  at 
which  the  faithful  might  sit,  if  their  consciences 
forbade  them  to  kneel.t 

These  concessions  would  have  permitted  the 
formation  of  a  scheme  of  comprehension,  under 
which  the  Presbyterian  clergy  might  retain  their 
ministry  and  their  livings  in  the  Establishment.^ 

The  king,  hating  dissension,  abhorring  sober 

o  Evelyn's  Diary  ;  Whitelocke. 

t  Baiter,  Life  and  Times ;  Macauley,  Clarendon. 

X  Newell,  p.  323 ;  Neale ;  Burnet's  Own  Times. 


*    ^ 


408 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


things,  anxious  always  to  escape  from  the  cares  of 
state  to  the  sensuality  of  the  seraglio,  favored  this 
programme,  since  he  thought  it  made  for  pea^e. 
He  gave  its  originators  an  audience.  Baxter  was 
the  spokesman  of  his  party ;  and  that  great  divine 
painted  a  glowing  picture  of  the  advantages  certain 
to  accrue  to  his  majesty,  to  the  state,  to  the  church, 
from  such  a  union.  Charles  listened  with  exquisite 
urbanity,  nodded  approval  at  the  close  of  every  sen- 
tence, requested  the  Presbyterians  to  draw  up  their 
proposals,  dismissed  the  delegation  with  a  gracious 
smile,*  and  when  they  were  gone,  sighed  wearily 
and  wondered  whether  that  stupid  conference  had 
not  kept  him  too  late  for  his  appointment  with  Nell 
Gwynne. 

Baxter  and  his  confreres  withdrew  from  the 
royal  ante-chamber  only  to  assemble  again  at  Zion 
college,  where  they  were  reinforced  by  as  many  of 
their  coreligionists  as  they  could  collect.  Here, 
after  a  weighty  and  prolonged  debate,  a  paper 
framed  on  Archbishop  Usher's  model  of  church 
government  was  adopted.t  "With  this  the  Presby- 
terians returned  to  court,  where  they  expected  to 
meet  the  bishops  and  hold  a  conference  in  which  a 
definitive  settlement  should  be  arranged.  What 
was  their  disappointment  when  they  found  that  the 
churchmen  had  declined  a  conference,  and  empow- 
ered the  lord-chancellor,  who  met  them,  to  hand 

♦  NeweU,  p.  323 ;  Burnet's  Own  Times ;  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp. 
480,  481. 

t  Burnet's  Own  Times  ;  Keliquise  Baxteriana3,  pt.  2,  p.  259. 


'X 


THE  EESTOBATION. 


409 


1 


\ 


them  an  elaborate  paper  of  objections  to  the  scheme 
of  union.* 

The  fact  should  seem  to  be,  that  "  the  great  body 
of  old  Cavaliers  listened  to  this  talk  of  compromise 
with  no  patience.  The  rehgious  members  of  that 
party  were  conscientiously  attached  to  the  whole 
system  of  their  church.  She  had  been  dear  to  their 
murdered  king.  She  had  consoled  them  in  defeat 
and  penury.  Her  service,  so  often  whispered  in  an 
inner  chamber  during  the  season  of  trial,  had  such 
a  charm  for  them  that  they  were  unwilling  to  part 
with  a  single  response.  Other  royalists,  who  made 
little  pretence  to  piety,  yet  loved  the  English  ritual 
because  it  was  the  foe  of  their  foes.  They  valued 
a  prayer  or  a  ceremony  not  on  account  of  the  com- 
fort it  conveyed  to  themselves,  but  on  account  of 
the  vexation  which  it  gave  the  Koundheads;  and 
were  so  far  from  being  disposed  to  make  conces- 
sions, that  they  objected  to  concessions  chiefly  be- 
cause they  tended  to  produce  union."t 

Thus,  from  one  cause  or  another,  the  severities 
of  former  years  began  to  be  revived.  Old  laws 
were  put  into  execution  against  those  who  did  not 
use  the  Liturgy.  Clergymen  who  had  been  se- 
questered under  the  Long  Parliament,  under  the 
Commonwealth,  under  the  Protectorate,  flocked  to 
court,  and  obtained  a  royal  order  for  their  rein- 
statement in  their  former  livings. t 

o  Burnet's  Own  Times  ;  ReliquisB  BaxteriansB,  lib.  1. 

-j-  Macauley,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  vol.  1,  p.  125. 

%  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  474, 482;  Burnet,  Evelyn's  Diary,  WMtelocke. 

rnriUiia.  \n 


'^1 


410 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PUBITANS. 


The  leading  Presbyterians  at  once  waited  upon 
the  king.  They  did  not  deny  that  those  preachers 
who  had  just  lost  their  livings  as  a  punishment  for 
malignancy  and  old  disaffection,  were  righteously 
ousted;  but  they  prayed  that  those  who  were 
friendly  to  the  Kestoration,  and  who  had  succeeded 
clergymen  ejected  for  scandal,  might  retain  their 
benefices.* 

Charles  was,  as  usual,  complaisant.  He  said, 
"  I  will  endeavor  to  give  you  all  satisfaction,  and  to 
make  you  as  happy  as  myself."t  In  October,  1660, 
he  published  a  pronunciamento,  in  which  the  exist- 
ing mixed  ecclesiastical  establishment  was  ordered 
to  be  maintained  until  the  convention  of  a  united 
assembly  of  Presbyterian  and  Episcopalian  divines. 
This  assembly  was  to  meet  five  months  later  at  the 
lodgings  of  the  bishop  of  London,  at  the  Savoy,  and 
its  settlement  was  to  be  definitive. J 

Meantime,  under  the  declaration,  Keynolds  ac- 
cepted a  bishopric;  Baxter  was  offered  one,  but 
decKned  for  reasons  (rther  than  ecclesiastical  ;§  and 
Calamy  was  pressed  to  accept  the  see  of  Litchfield, 
but  this  he  refused  to  take  until  the  declaration 
should  be  enacted  into  law.|| 

Soon  the  declaration  was  presented  to  Parlia- 
ment for  their  sanction.  The  bill  passed  one  read- 
ing, but  court  intrigue  defeated  it  on  a  second.l 

•  NeweU,  p.  327 ;  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  474,  482.  f  I^t^id. 

X  Burnet's  Own  Times,  Whitelocke,  Baxter's  Life  and  Times. 

§  Baxter's  Life  and  Times,  Neale. 

II  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  483  ;  Newell. 

IT  Hume,  Macauley,  Neale,  Newell,  Baxter,  etc. 


,! 


THE  EESTORATION. 


\     I 


'< 


k 


I 


411 


This  at  once  opened  the  eyes  of  the  self-cozened 
Presbyterians,  and  they  began  to  prepare  for  per- 
secution.* 

But  while'  this  stir  was  afoot  among  the  ecclesi- 
astics, the  politicians  were  busy.  At  the  head  of 
the  new  ministry,  Hyde,  Lord  Clarendon,  was 
placed.  He  was  a  man  of  fine  talent,  but  rusty  in 
politics  from  long  exile,  and  prejudiced  in  religion 
by  misfortune.  The  first  political  move  of  the  Res- 
toration was  to  pass  an  act  of  indemnity ;  this  bur- 
ied past  offences  in  oblivion,  and  excepted  from  its 
grace  only  such  criminals  as  should  be  designated 
by  Parliament.f 

This  act  has  been  smothered  beneath  the  pane- 
gyrics of  six  generations  of  admiring  critics ;  but 
when  it  is  remembered  that  Charles  came  back  to 
England  by  no  prowess  of  his  own,  but  on  the  free 
invitation  of  a  forgiving  people,  the  fact  that  he  did 
not  instantly  assume  the  port  of  a  successful  con- 
queror and  breathe  forth  fire  and  slaughter  loses 
much  of  its  attributed  lustre.  Had  the  Stuarts 
returned  by  conquest,  violence  and  bloody  reprisal 
might  have  been  in  place.  But  we  apprehend  that, 
sitting  enthroned  as  the  guest  of  the  nation,  the 
king's  action  was,  from  the  very  outset,  suflficiently 
high  and  arbitrary. 

The  indemnity  act  was  far  from  being  pure  rose- 
water.  Parliament  excepted  all  the  regicides  by 
name;  it  attainted  Cromwell,  Ireton,  Bradshaw, 
and  others  who  then  slept  in  the  coffin ;  it  excepted 


o  Neale,  Newell. 


t  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  432. 


■t 


412 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


Lambert  and  Yane,  thougli  neither  of  these  had 
any  hand  in  the  execution  of  the  king,  and  though 
Vane  had  never  countenanced  the  Protectorate,  but 
had  hved  in  peaceable  retirement  since  the  down- 
fall of  the  Commonwealth ;  it  denied  its  benefits  to 
St.  John  and  seventeen  others,  should  they  attempt 
to  hold  any  office  ;  and  it  disabled  all  who  had  sat 
in  an  illegal  court  from  ever  accepting  any  public 
employment — ^banning  thereby  the  whole  judicial 
bench.* 

Most  of  those  who,  either  from  prominent  con- 
nection with  the  recent  regime  or  from  repubhcan 
principles,  were  peculiarly  obnoxious  to  the  resus- 
citated royalty,  had  secreted  themselves  when  the 
clouds  began  to  gather.  Three  of  the  regicides 
had  quitted  England  for  America.t  Richard  Crom- 
well had  passed  beyond  the  sea.ij:  Milton,  old,  blind, 
and  infirm,  but  still  serene  with  the  patience  of  a 
great  soul,  had  sought  an  asylum  with  a  friend, 
where  he  still  continued 

**  To  sing  and  build  the  lofty  rhyme.  "§ 

But  all  who  could  be  found  were  seized.  -  Even  the 
grave  was  rifled.    The  bodies  of  Cromwell,  Brad- 

<*  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  432.  Mr.  Hume  thinks  these  severities 
very  mild,  considering  that  they  followed  such  furious  civil  wars 
and  convulsions ;  a  conclusion  from  which  we  dissent  for  reasons 
recited  in  the  text. 

f  Bancroft,  Hist.,  vol.  1 ;  Wilson,  Pilgrim  Fathers,  etc. 

X  Burnet's  Own  Times.  Kichard  Cromwell  died  at  Theobalds, 
in  1712 ;  Neale. 

§  Life  and  Times  of  John  Milton,  Amer.  Tract  Society,  1866 ; 
Todd's  Life ;  Iviraey. 


t 


■! 


THE  RESTOKATION. 


413 


: 


\\ 


II 


shaw,  and  Ireton  were  dug  up ;  and  with  a  malice 
as  pitiful  as  it  was  blasphemous,  these  were  drawn 
on  hurdles  to  Tyburn  gallows,  where  they  hung 
from  sunrise  to  sunset;  then  they  were  huddled 
into  one  hole  at  the  foot  of  the  scaffold  :*  Blake, 
who  had  carried  the  thunders  of  the  British  cannon 
"  from  Ganges  to  the  icebergs,"  and  enthroned  the 
navy  mistress  of  the  seas,  was  disturbed  in  his  last 
sleep  ;t  and  the  body  of  Mrs.  Claypole,  the  Protec- 
tor's daughter,  was  likewise  insulted  in  the  grave^J, 
Lambert  was  sentenced  to  perpetual  imprisonment 
at  the  isle  of  Jersey.    Ten  of  the  regicides  suffered 
death   with    Christian    firmness.§      The    political 
pamphlets  of  Milton  were  called  in  by  proclama- 
tion, and  burned  by  the  common  hangman.ll    A 
little  later.  Sir  Harry  Vane,  whom  the  king  had 
promised  on  his  honor  to  pardon,  w^as  sacrificed  to 
the  ghost  of  the  earl  of  Strafford.!    He  sleeps 

'*  In  peace,  with  kindred  ashes 
Of  the  noble  and  the  true ; 
*  Hands  that  never  failed  their  country, 

Hearts  that  never  baseness  knew." 

Now  the  papists,  emboldened  by  the  patronage 
of  the  king,  began  to  creep  from  their  corners ;  and 

«  King  James'  Memoirs ;  Kennet's  Register  ;  Pari.  Hist 

I  Ibid.  X  Headley's  Cromwell ;  Carlyle,  etc. 
§  State  Trials,  Hume,  Neale. 

II  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  488 ;  Milton's  Lives. 

IT  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  514.  Vane  would  not  petition  for  his  life, 
but  said,  "  If  the  king  has  no  greater  regard  for  his  word  than  for 
my  life,  he  can  take  it."  He  died  with  serene  composure.  At  the 
scaffold  he  was  not  aUowed  to  speak  ;  on  which  he  said,  *♦  'Tis  a 
sorry  cause  which  cannot  bear  the  words  of  a  dying  man."  Neale. 


414 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


with  the  craft  and  patience  peculiar  to  their  system, 
they  gradually  wormed  themselves  into  the  confi- 
dence of  the  government,  wriggled  into  office,  and 
eventually  made  converts  of  the  duke  of  York  and 
of  Charles  himself.* 

Through  all  these  changes  there  was  no  disturb- 
ance ;  England,  sick  of  war,  seemed  wilHng  to  con- 
sent to  any  thing  for  the  sake  of  peace.  The  only 
thing  that  looked  like  an  emeute  was  a  crazy  foray 
of  two  or  three  score  fifth-monarchy  men,  who 
avowed  their  determination  to  upset  the  Restora- 
tion in  favor  of  king  Jesus,  t  This  was  of  course 
easily  suppressed,  and  the  storm  exploded  in  a  laugh. 

Nevertheless  this  mad  raid  of  forty  heated  fa- 
natics was  made  a  pretext  for  an  invasion  of  the 
recent  royal  declaration  of  indulgence,  and  an  order 
of  council  forbade  the  assembly  of  the  sectaries 
except  at  stated  seasons  and  at  specified  places.J 
The  Independents,  the  Baptists,  and  the  Quakers 
petitioned  the  king  against  this  mandate,  ajjd  as- 
serted their  desire  to  live  quietly  and  acquiescently 
under  the  Restoration.  But  the  prayer  of  these 
despised  sects  went  in  at  one  ear  and  out  at  the 
other  of  the  scoffing  monarch. 

In  1661,  renewed  revelry  and  debauchery  were 
occasioned  by  the  king's  marriage  with  the  Infanta 
of  Portugal.    "  This  match,"  says  Neale,  "was  pro- 

o  Burnet's  Own  Times ;  Hallam,  Cons.  Hist. ;  King  James* 
Memoirs  ;  Harris,  Life  of  Charles  XL 

t  Hume,  vol.  2 ;  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  490,  etc. 

%  Crosby's  and  Ivimey's  Hist,  of  the  Baptists ;  Neale,  Bum^t, 
Harris. 


THE  RESTOEATION. 


415 


moted  by  Monk  and  Clarendon.  It  was  reckoned 
very  strange  that  a  Protestant  chancellor  should 
advise  the  king  to  marry  a  papist  princess,  when  a 
Komanist  king  proposed  af  the  same  time  a  Prot- 
estant consort.  But  Clarendon  had  further  views, 
for  it  was  the  general  gossip  among  the  merchants 
that  the  Infanta  could  have  no  children ;  in  which 
case  the  chancellor's  daughter,  who  had  been  pri- 
vately married  to  the  king's  brother,  must  succeed, 
and  her  issue  by  the  duke  of  York,  afterwards  James 
n.,  would  become  heirs  to  the  throne,  which  actu- 
ally happened  in  the  persons  of  queen  Mary  II.  and 
queen  Anne."* 

But  while  these  intrigues  were  provoking  com- 
ment at  court  and  on  'change,  the  "  Convention  par- 
liament," as  it  was  called,  because  it  had  met  with- 
out the  sanction  of  the  royal  writs,  was  dissolved. 
Its  members  had  been  elected  before  the  Restora- 
tion, and  while  the  Presbyterians  were  dominant ; 
consequently  it  had  been  a  check  on  the  exuber- 
ant loyalty  of  the  Cavaliers,  and  it  had  long  ceased 
to  reflect  public  opinion.t 

Early  in  1661  a  new  election  was  held,  and  the 
most  zealous  and  fiery  Cavaliers  were  returned  to 
the  House  of  Commons ;  indeed  it  has  been  justly 
said  that  they  were  more  zealous  for  royalty  than 
the  king,  and  more  zealous  for  Episcopacy  than  the 
bishops.  With  the  action  of  this  parhament  we 
shall  presently  become  acquainted. 

♦  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  493. 

f  Burnet's  Own  Times ;  Harris,  Charles  XL ;  Hume,  Hist  Eng. 


416 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


CHAPT^K  XXXI. 

'•BLACK  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW." 

On  the  25tli  of  March,  1661,  the  famous  Confer- 
ence was  commenced  at  the  Savoy.  Each  party  was 
represented  by  twenty-one  disputants ;  and  the  pro- 
fessed object  was,  to  advise  upon  and  review  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
satisfaction  to  tender  consciences,  and  to  maintain 
the  unity  of  the  church.* 

A  prolonged  and  able  debate  ensued.  The  Epis- 
copal cause  was  defended  by  Gunning,  a  man  of 
large  reading  and  a  subtle  reasoner.  The  Presby- 
terian argument  was  pleaded  by  Baxter.t  "  Things 
were  carried  on  at  the  Savoy  with  great  sharpness 
and  many  reflections,"  remarks  Burnet.  "  The  Con- 
ference broke  up  without  doing  any  good.  It  did 
rather  hurt,  and  heightened  the  asperity  that  was 
then  in  people's  minds  to  such  a  degree  that  it 
needed  no  addition  to  make  it  higher.  The  bish- 
ops insisted  on  the  laws  as  they  were  still  in  force. 
The  Presbyterians  laid  their  complaints  before  the 
king ;  but  Httle  regard  was  had  to  them.  And  now 
aU  the  concern  that  seemed  to  employ  the  prelates' 
thoughts  was,  not  only  to  make  no  alteration  in 
easement  of  the  Liturgy,  but  to  make  the  terms  of 

•  Keliquiae  Baxteriariie,  part  2  ;  Neale,  Newell,  Burnet. 
t  Baxter's  Life  and  Times. 


) 


'*BLACK  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW."       417 

conformity  much  stricter  than  they  had  been  before 
the  war."* 

Fresh  from  the  sanction  of  the  bishops  at  the 
Savoy,  the  Liturgy  was  dispatched  to  the  Convoca- 
tion then  in  session  with  the  Parliament,  and  the 
Episcopal  divines  were  directed  in  their  turn  to 
review  it,  and  to  make  such  additions  and  amend- 
ments as  they  thought  proper.  "  Some  lesser  al- 
terations were  made,*'  says  Burnet;  "they  took  in 
more  lessons  out  of  the  Apocrypha,  in  particular 
the  story  of  Bel  and  the  Dragon ;  new  offices  were 
also  made  for  two  new  days,  the  30th  of  January, 
called  King  Charles  the  Martyr,  and  the  29th  of 
May,  the  day  of  the  king's  birth  and  return ;  but 
care  was  taken  that  nothing  should  be  changed  as 
it  had  been  moved  by  the  Presbyterians."t 

When  this  was  done,  the  Convocation  returned 
the  Prayer-book  to  the  king,  who  immediately  sent 
it  to  the  Parliament.  J 

The  Commons  had  commenced  their  session  by 
voting  that  each  member  should,  on  pain  of  expul- 
sion, take  the  sacrament  as  prescribed  by  the  old 
Liturgy,  and  that  the  Covenant  should  be  burned 
by  the  hangman  in  the  Palace-yard.  Next  an  act 
was  passed  which  declared  that  in  no  imaginable 
extremity  could  the  two  houses  be  justified  in  resist- 
ing the  royal  authority  by  force.  A  statute  was 
framed  which  compelled  every  corporation  officer 
to  take  an  oath  to  the  same  effect.    The  bishops 


*  Burnet's  Own  Times,  p.  124. 
X  Baxter,  Hume,  Neale,  Burnet. 

18* 


t  Ibid.,  p.  125. 


418        HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


were  restored  to  their  seats  in  the  npper  house.  And 
now,  on  the  receipt  of  the  revised  Prayer-book,  a 
biting  Act  of  Uniformity  was  passed,  which  for  the 
first  time  made  Episcopal  ordination  an  indispensa- 
ble qualification  for  church  preferment.  St.  Bar- 
tholomew's day,  August  24, 1662,  was  fixed  as  the 
date  when  the  new  law  should  be  put  into  execu- 
tion.* 

At  length  the  blow  had  fallen.  Non-conformity, 
sad  and  worn,  had  done  its  utmost,  and  made  a  gal- 
lant fight ;  but  it  now  met  its  Waterloo. 

The  authorities  did  not  wait  for  the  time  ap- 
pointed to  arrive  before  commencing  their  cam- 
paign, though  no  overt  act  was  yet  committed. 
The  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  was  once  more 
preached.t  The  most  inveterate  high-churchmen 
were  preferred  to  bishopries-^  The  sequestered 
revenues  were  again  collected.§  Clergymen,  be- 
wildered and  ofttimes  crazed  by  the  return  of  pros- 
perous days,  employed  themselves,  like  Milton's 
mammon,  in  piling  up  gold,  careless  of  judgment, 
righteousness,  and  the  world  to  come,  if  only  they 
might  make  the  heap  high  and  massy.  "  What  the 
bishops  did  with  their  great  fines  "—these  are  Bur- 
net's words — "  was  a  pattern  to  the  lesser  dignita- 
ries, who  generally  took  more  care  of  themselves 
than  of  the  church.  The  men  of  service  were  load- 
ed with  many  livings  and  dignities.     With  this  ac- 


•  Macanley,  Hume,  etc. 

t  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  484 ;  Burnet,  Hallam,  Macauley. 

X  Ibid.  §  I*>i<^ 


**BLACK  ST.  BABTHOLOMEW. 


» > 


419 


cession  of  wealth  there  broke  in  upon  the  Establish- 
ment a  flood  of  luxury  and  high-living  on  pretence 
of  hospitality;  and  with  this  overset  of  gold  and 
pomp  which  came  upon  men  in  the  decline  of  life, 
those  who  were  now  growing  into  old  age  became 
lazy  and  negligent  in  spiritual  interests."^ 

In  this  interim  the  church  of  Scotland  was  rev- 
olutionized. Episcopacy  was  established  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Tweed ;  and  a  few  months  later 
Ireland  also  accepted  the  English  Establishment.t 

At  length  black  St.  Bartholomew  arrived.  "  The 
Presbyterians  remembered  what  a  St.  Bartholomew's 
had  been  at  Paris  ninety  years  before,"  and  they 
compared  the  days.  This  formula  was  tendered  to 
every  rector,  lecturer,  and  clerk  in  the  island :  Re- 
ordination,  if  not  already  episcopally  ordained ;  a 
declaration  of  unfeigned  assent  to  all  and  every 
thing  prescribed  and  contained  in  the  ritual  of  the 
Established  church;  the  oath  of  canonical  obedi- 
ence ;  the  abjuration  of  the  League  and  Covenant ; 
the  abjuration  of  the  lawfulness  of  taking  arms 
against  the  king,  or  any  one  commissioned  by  him, 
on  any,  the  most  weighty,  pretence.  J 

To  these  terms  of  conformity,  severer  than  those 
prescribed  by  Laud  himseK,  no  Puritan  could  sub- 
scribe. The  result  was,  ejectment.  Two  thousand 
clergymen,  on  this  one  black  day,  were  expelled  from 
their  livings,  and  reduced  to  beggary.  "No  pro- 
vision," observes  Burnet,  "  was  made  for  the  main- 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times.        f  Ibid.,  Hume,  Clarendon,  etc. 
t  Statutes  of  the  Kealm,  Pari.  Hist.,  Neale,  Hume. 


420        HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 


tenance  of  the  sequestered  preachers;  a  severity 
neither  practised  by  EHzabeth  when  she  enacted 
her  Liturgy,  nor  by  Cromwell  in  ejecting  the  royal- 
ists, in  both  which  cases  a  fifth  part  of  the  bene- 
fice was  reserved  for  their  subsistence.  Here  were 
many  men  much  valued,  some  on  better  grounds 
and  some  on  worse,  who  were  now  cast  out  of  the 
Establishment  ignominiously,  reduced  to  pinching 
poverty,  provoked  by  much  spiteful  usage,  and  cast 
upon  those  popular  practices  which  both  their  prin- 
ciples and  their  circumstances  seemed  to  justify,  of 
forming  separate  congregations,  and  of  diverting 
men  from  the  public  worship,  and  from  consider- 
ing their  successors  as  the  lawful  pastors  of  those 
churches  in  which  they  had  served."* 

The  pecuniary  bight  came  here  :  the  payment  of 
each  year's  tithes  fell  due  on  Michaelmas ;  St.  Bar- 
tholomew's day  came  before  it,  and  all  Non-con- 
formists would  lose  a  twelve-months'  income,  which 
to  these  poor  husbands  and  fathers  was  absolute 
ruin.t  Still  a  beggared  purse  was  better  than  an 
undone  conscience ;  and  these  spiritual  heroes  ac- 
cepted their  fate  as  serenely  as  they  could  had  they 
been  bidden  to  a  feast.  Some  of  the  parishioners 
of  these  clergymen  could  not  understand  their  scru- 
ples. "Ah,"  said  one  countryman  to  the  vicar  of 
Ormskirk,  as  that  pastor  stood  in  the  door-yard  of 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times,  p.  12G. 

f  Ibid.  Stougbton,  Neale,  Newell.  Burnet  states  tbat  tbo 
Commons  fixed  on  St.  Bartbolomew's  day  for  tbat  very  purposo, 
p.  126. 


'*BLACK  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW.''       421 

his  tranquil  home — ^liis  no  longer — and  gazed  with 
a  heavy  but  patient  heart  at  the  dear,  familiar  land- 
scape, "Ah,  sir,  we  would  gladly  have  you  still 
preach  in  our  church."  "  Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "  I 
would  as  gladly  preach  as  you  can  desire  it,  if  I 
could  do  it  with  a  safe  conscience."  "  Oh,"  retort- 
ed the  man,  "many  nowadays  make  a  great  gash 
in  their  consciences ;  can't  you  make  a  litth  nick  in 

yours  ?"* 

But  they  could  not;  and  such  self-sacrificing 
heroism  was  more  eloquent  than  their  sermons ;  it 
was  an  afflatus  of  the  Spirit  of  that  gentle  Jesus  who 
Avhispered  from  the  accursed  tree,  "  Father,  forgive 
them ;  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

Thus  closed  "  black  St.  Bartholomew ;"  and  the 
day  is  Hnked  for  ever  in  English  history  with  a  pa- 
thos which  is  near  akin  to  its  bloody  interest  in  the 
annals  of  mediaeval  France.  In  one  country  it  was 
a  holocaust  of  corpses ;  in  the  other  it  was  a  mas- 
sacre of  stricken  souls. 

"Good  Heaven,  wbat  sorrows  gloomed  tbat  parting  day, 
Tbat  called  tbem  from  tbeir  native  walks  away ; 
Wben  tbe  poor  exiles,  every  pleasure  past. 
Hung  round  tbeir  bowers,  and  fondly  looked  tbeir  last. 
Witb  loudest  plaints  tbe  motber  spoke  ber  woes, 
And  blessed  tbe  cot  wbere  every  pleasure  rose. 
And  kissed  ber  tbougbtless  babes  witb  many  a  tear, 
And  clasped  tbem  close,  in  sorrow  doubly  dear, 
Wbile  ber  fond  busband  strove  to  lend  relief, 
In  all  tbe  silent  manliness  of  grief." 

The  spirit  of  the  Bartholomew  act  was  that  of 
haughty  and  vindictive  retaliation,  beneath  the  dig- 
*  stougbton,  Spiritual  Heroes  of  Puritan  Times,  p.  291. 


422 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


nity  of  statesmen,  and  unworthy  of  the  character  of 
Christians.  The  Puritans,  and  especially  the  Pres- 
byterians, had,  in  the  day  of  their  power,  undoubt- 
edly given  cruel  provocation.  They  ought  to  have 
learned,  if  from  nothing  else,  yet  from  their  own 
discontents,  from  their  own  struggles,  from  their 
own  victory,  from  the  fall  of  that  proud  hierarchy 
by  which  they  had  been  so  heavily  oppressed,  that 
in  England,  and  in  the  seventeenth  century,  it  was 
not  in  the  power  of  the  civil  magistrate  to  drill  the 
minds  of  men  into  conformity  with  any  prescribed 
discipline.*  Some  of  the  Puritan  sects  did  learn 
and  practise  this  lesson ;  but  even  so  fine  a  charac- 
ter as  Baxter  plainly  told  king  Charles,  after  the 
Eestoration,  that  he  did  not  believe  in  the  tolera- 
tion of  Papists  and  Socinians.t 

Still  this  does  not  excuse  the  Act  of  Uniformity. 
"  I  must  own,"  says  Fuller,  "  that  in  my  judgment, 
however  both  sides  have  been  excessively  to  blame, 
yet  that  the  severities  used  by  the  church  towards 
the  dissenters  are  less  excusable  than  those  used  by 
the  dissenters  towards  the  church.  My  reason  is, 
that  the  former  were  used  in  time  of  peace  and  a 
settled  government,  whereas  the  latter  were  inflicted 
in  times  of  tumult  and  confrision ;  so  that  the  plun- 
derings  and  ravagings  endured  by  the  churchm(3n 
were  owing,  many  of  them  at  least,  to  the  rude- 
ness of  soldiers  and  the  chances  of  war ;  they  were 
plundered,  not  because  they  were  conformists,  but 
Cavaliers;  but  no  mercy  was   shown  these  un- 

•  Newell,  Macauley.  f  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  476. 


**BLACK  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW."       423 

happy  sufferers,  though  it  was  impossible  on  a 
sudden  to  fill  up  the  gap  that  was  made  by  their 

removal."* 

One  of  the  worst  features  of  this  act  was,  that  it 
gagged  preachers  of  that  same  Protestant  faith 
which  its  framers  professed,  and  drove  from  the 
pulpits,  which  could  not  then  be  adequately  filled, 
men  who  had  been  faithful  to  their  consciences ; 
nay,  it  harassed  them  with  cruel  persecution  if  they 
lifted  up  their  voices  for  the  instruction  and  conso- 
lation of  the  bereaved  and  insulted  people  on  whose 
free-will  offerings  they  were  thrown.t 

At  this  very  time  the  author  of  "  The  Five  Groans 
of  the  Church,"  a  very  strict  conformist,  complained 
that  above  three  thousand  ministers  were  admitted 
into  the  church  who  were  unfit  to  teach  because  of 
their  youth ;  that  fifteen  hundred  debauched  men 
were  ordained ;  that  illiterate  men  were  preferred 
to  benefices;  and  that  out  of  about  twelve  thousand 
livings,  three  thousand  were  impropriate,  that  is, 
granted  to  laymen ;  and  four  thousand  one  hundred 
and  sixty-five  were  sinecures.X 

Bad  as  it  was,  the  Act  of  Conformity  did  not 
stand  alone,  an  isolated  monument  of  folly  and 
wicked  tyranny.  In  1663  it  was  reinforced  by  the 
Conventicle  Act,  which  condemned  all  persons  fre- 
quenting "  any  meetings  under  color  or  pretence  of 
any  exercise  of  religion  other  than  is  allowed  by  the 
Liturgy  of  the  church  of  England"  to  heavy  fine  for 

*  Fuller's  Worthies.  t  Newell,  p.  333. 

J  Cited  in  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  520,  521. 


424 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


the  first  offence,  to  fine  and  imprisonment  for  the 
second  offence,  to  banishment  to  the  American 
plantations — other  than  New  England  and  Yir- 
ginia,  where  they  would  find  coreligionists — for  the 
third  offence.*  At  the  same  time,  all  persons  re- 
fusing peremptorily  to  attend  the  Established  church 
were  condemned  to  banishment ;  and  on  return,  to 
death  without  benefit  of  clergyt — statutes  which,  for 
cold-blooded  malignity,  surpass  the  code  of  Draco. 
The  Act  of  Uniformity  was  to  this  as  "  Hyperion  to 
a  satyr."  That  expelled  men  from  the  benefices  of 
the  church ;  this  ejected  them  from  the  privileges 
of  society.  Half  the  kingdom  was  outlawed.  A 
reign  of  terror  was  inaugurated,  rivalling  that 
which,  in  a  later  age,  frenzied  the  Parisian  popu- 
lace. Spies  lurked  in  every  corner ;  informers  leered 
from  behind  every  blind.  Men  guilty  only  of  loving 
their  Creator  were  torn  from  their  families,  impris- 
oned, ruined  by  fines,  tortured  in  the  pillory,  ban- 
ished jfrom  their  homes,  or  hanged  upon  the  gal- 
lows. To  attend  a  conventicle  became  a  damning 
crime,  and  it  required  the  cleverest  precaution. 
The  catacomb  days  of  English  Christianity  were 
revived.  The  Puritans  met  in  dark  alleys,  in  upper 
garrets,  or  in  the  woods  at  midnight.  In  some  sea- 
sons the  forests  were  a  favorite  sanctuary;  and 
"  beneath  the  shades  of  lofty  pines  or  overhanging 
elms,  or  round  the  gnarled  trunks  of  oaks  that  had 
stood  for  ages,  forming  temples  of  God's  own  build- 

•  statutes  of  the  Realm ;  Pari.  Hist. 

t  Ibid. ;  Neale,  toI.  2,  pp.  531,  532 ;  Hallam, 


'*BLACK  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW."       425 

ing,  the  hunted  and  peeled  brotherhood  assembled 
to  hear  the  word  of  God."* 

At  other  times,  when  the  eye  of  human  observa- 
tion was  sealed  by  sleep,  they  would  steal  into  an 
upper  chamber ;  and  having  entered,  they  would 
make  fast  the  door,  and  close  the  window-shutters, 
and  even  extinguish  the  candle,  lest  its  glimmer 
might  be  discerned  by  some  prowler  through  a 
crevice.     Then  the  night  would  be  spent  in  prayer, 
until  the  ray  of  morning  light,  struggling  down  the 
chimney,  announced  the  time  to  disperse.    Thus 
men  learned  that  darkness  hideth  not  from   God, 
but  the  night  shineth  as  the  day ;  and  that "  the  Fa- 
ther, who  seeth  in  secret,  shall  reward  us  openly."t 
Often,  however,  all  precautions  proved  futile :  the 
jails  were  soon  crowded ;  families  were  divided  and 
distracted ;  yet  no  breach  of  the  peace  occurred. 

"  I  saw  several  of  these  poor  people,"  writes  Pe- 
pys,  a  high-churchman  whose  heart  was  touched 
by  these  scenes,  in  his  diary,  imder  the  year  1664, 
"  carried  by  constables  for  being  at  a  conventicle. 
They  go  like  lambs,  without  any  resistance ;  and 
would  to  God  they  would  either  conform  or  be 
more  wise,  and  not  be  catched."^ 

"  Fiatjustitia,  mat  ccelum"  said  an  enthusiastic 
Presbyterian  royalist,  when  conversing  with  an  In- 
dependent friend  in  regard  to  bringing  in  Charles 
n.     "  Ruit  coelum"  remarked  this  friend  on  meet- 

*  Stoughton,  p.  303. 

f  Pearsall's  Outlines  of  Congregationalism,  etc.,  p.  94. 

I  Cited  in  Stoughton,  p.  304. 


^ 


^^ 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


ing  him  after  the  passage  of  the  Uniformity  and 
Conventicle  acts.* 

The  king  at  this  time  claimed  a  dispensing  power, 
which  enabled  him  to  suspend  at  his  pleasure  all 
these  harsh  penal  codes. t  This  was  never  exerted 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Puritans ;  but  by  this  shallow 
trick  the  Papists  were  often  eased;  and  now  in 
these  fierce  times  they  had  the  good  fortune  to  be 
covered  under  the  wing  of  the  prerogative.! 

Some  of  the  old  CavaHers  had  some  compunctions 
of  conscience  when  they  beheld  such  wide-spread 
consternation  and  distress.  But  in  this  weakness 
Clarendon  and  Sheldon,  the  twin  authors  of  the 
persecution,!  did  not  share.  When  the  earl  of  Man- 
chester told  the  king  that  the  terms  of  conformity 
were  so  strict  that  he  feared  many  of  the  ministers 
could  not  comply,  Bishop  Sheldon  made  this  reply : 
"  I  have  been  afi-aid  they  would ;  but  now  that  we 
know  their  real  minds,  we  will  post  them  all  as 
knaves  if  they  do  conform."  "  Yet  after  all,"  said 
Dr.  Allen,  "  't  is  a  pity  the  door  is  so  strait."  "  'T  is 
no  pity  at  all,"  responded  the  proud  churchman; 
"  if  we  had  imagined  that  so  many  would  conform 
as  have  done  so,  we  would  have  made  it  straiter ; 
these  sects  must  be  crushed."! 

This  shows  the  animus  of  the  court.  Listen  now 
to  the  wise  words  of  Locke,  in  his  "  Third  Letter  on 

•  Palmer's  Non-conformist  Memorial,  vol.  2,  p.  432. 

t  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  528. 

X  Ibid.,  p.  532;  Hume,  Macauley. 

§  Burnet's  Own  Times,  p.  126. 

II  Cited  in  NeweU,  p.  331. 


/  f 

I 


"BLACK  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW.' 


127 


Toleration  :"  "  They  who  talk  so  much  of  sects  and 
divisions,  would  do  well  to  consider  whether  those 
are  not  most  authors  and  promoters  of  sects  and 
divisions  who  impose  creeds,  ceremonies,  and  arti- 
cles of  men's  making,  and  make  things  not  neces- 
sary to  salvation  the  necessary  terms  of  salvation ; 
who  narrow  Christianity  within  bounds  of  their  own 
making ;  and  often,  for  things  by  themselves  con- 
fessed indifferent,  thrust  men  out  of  their  commun- 
ion, and  then  punish  them  for  not  being  in  it."* 

We  commend  this  page  from  Locke  to  the 
thoughtful  consideration  of  the  Sheldons  of  our 
century. 

It  has  been  well  said,  that  this  whole  chapter  of 
circumstances  is  disgraceful  to  all  parties  excepting 
the  sufferers.  The  king  was  convicted  of  dissimu- 
lation, the  leaders  of  the  church  of  treacherous 
cruelty,  and  the  ParHament  of  grossly  neglecting, 
in  the  heat  of  their  passionate  loyalty,  that  justice 
which  was  due  to  every  subject  of  the  realm,  and 
those  grand  principles  of  liberty  which  are  at  once 
the  ornament  and  the  safeguard  of  nations.  These 
abhorrent  statutes,  instead  of  promoting  unity  and 
cementing  peace,  multiplied  the  divisions  of  the 
conscientious,  and  gave  a  bribe  to  discord. 

o  Locke's  Letter  to  a  Person  of  Quality. 


\ 


\ 


^s^ 


428 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


HEROES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 


429 


CHAPTEE  XXXII. 

THE  HEROES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 

It  is  a  high  speech  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  that 
"  the  great,  in  affliction,  bear  a  countenance  more 
princely  than  they  are  wont;  for  it  is  the  temper  of 
the  highest  hearts,  like  the  palm-tree,  to  strive  most 
upwards  when  most  burdened."  Discrowned  Puri- 
tanism, now  buried  in  the  "  valley  of  humiliation," 
is  at  once  a  vindication  and  an  illustration  of  this 
apothegm.    Yet  the  voice  of  its  apostles  was 

*  Unchanged 
To  hoarse  or  mute,  though  fallen  on  evil  days, 
On  evil  days  though  fallen,  and  evil  tongues ; 
In  darkness,  and  with  dangers  compassed  round, 
And  solitude." 

They  did  not  murmur,  nor  did  they  covet  the 
"pleasant  places"  in  which  the  "lines"  of  their 
persecutors  had  fallen.  "An  English  merchant 
that  then  lived  in  Dantzic,"  says  old  Firmin,  "once 
went  to  a  convent  and  dined  with  some  friars :  his 
entertainment  was  very  noble.  After  he  had  dined 
and  saw  all,  the  merchant  fell  to  commending  their 
pleasant  lives.  *  Yes,*  said  one  of  the  friars,  *  we 
live  gallantly  indeed,  had  we  anybody  to  go  to  hell 
for  us  when  we  die  1'  "*  Men  who  are  sure  of  "  the 
*all  hail'  hereafter,"  may  calmly  pocket  the  affronts 
and  the  privations  of  the  scornful  present. 

•  Firmin,  The  Keal  Christian,  p.  63  ;  London,  1670. 


I 


Let  us  now  quit  for  a  moment  the  highway  of 
our  history,  and  wandering  in  the  by-paths  of  the 
story,  reverently  gather  up  a  few  of  those  anecdotal 
and  biographical  incidents  which  vivify  and  indi- 
vidualize the  exodus  of  1662. 

One  of  the  central  figures  of  that  epoch  was 
Richard  Baxter.  Born  in  1615,  his  hfe  covers  the 
larger  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.*  Though 
always  resting  under  broken  health,  his  life  was  an 
active  apostleship,  and  he  Hved  to  see  his  seventy- 
seventh  year.t  Baxter  was  the  argumentative  and 
speculative  representative  of  Puritanism.  One  of 
the  most  voluminous  writers  of  any  age,J  his  clear, 
bold,  incisive  doctrines  early  pushed  him  into  the 
leadership  of  his  party,  and  secured  for  him  the 
active  and  persevering  hostility  of  the  ultramonta- 
nists.  Never  was  the  alliance  of  soul  and  body 
formed  on  terms  of  greater  inequality  than  in  his 
person.  "It  was  like  the  compact  in  the  fable, 
where  all  the  spoils  and  honors  fell  to  the  giant's 
share,  while  the  poor  dwarf  put  up  with  all  the 
danger  and  the  blows.  The  mournful  Hst  of  his 
chronic  diseases  renders  almost  miraculous  the 
mental  vigor  which  bore  him  through  exertions 
resembhng  those  of  a  disembodied  spirit.  .  But  his 
ailments  were  such  as,  without  affecting  his  mental 
powers,  gave  repose  to  his  animal  appetites,  and 

•  Reliquiae  Baxterianae  ;  Orme's  Life  and  Times  of  R.  Baxter, 
vol.  1. 

\  Ibid. ;  Tullock,  English  Puritanism  and  its  Leaders,  p.  287. 
^  See  Orme's  account  of  Baxter's  writings  in  vol.  2  of  his  Life. 


^\ 


^ 


430         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

quenched  the  thirst  for  all  the  honors  and  emoln- 
ments  of  this  life.  Death,  though  delaying  to  strike, 
stood  continually  before  him,  ever  quickening  his 
attention  to  that  awful  presence  by  approaching 
the  victim  under  some  new  or  varied  aspect  of  dis- 
ease."* Under  this  influence  he  wrote  and  spoke. 
It  was  the  secret  of  his  power ;  and  he  has  himself 
said,  in  his  immortal  couplet, 

*'I  preached  as  never  sure  to  preach  again, 
And  as  a  dying  man  to  dying  men." 

Baxter  was  one  of  the  earliest,  as  he  was  one  of 
the  most  illustrious  sufferers  under  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity; and  at  the  age  of  forty-seven,  bowed  down 
beneath  infirmities,  he  was  driven  from  his  cure  at 
Kidderminster,  to  spend  the  remnant  of  his  days 
alternately  in  citations  before  abandoned  magis- 
trates, from  Jeffries  down  to  the  lowest  pot-house 
justices,  in  filthy  jails  and  precarious  hiding-places,  t 

Yet  such  was  Baxter's  zeal,  that  despite  the  vig- 
ilant repressive  hand  of  the  law,  it  still  bubbled 
over  into  channels  of  multifarious  activity.  Soon 
after  the  ejectment,  he  took  up  his  residence  in  the 
city  of  Coventry,  and  here  he  was  accustomed  to 
lecture  in  a  private  house  on  a  neighboring  com- 
mon, near  the  hamlet  of  Berkswell.  He  spoke  gen- 
erally at  a  very  early  hour,  sometimes  before  the 
day  opened  its  eyes.  On  one  occasion  he  left  Cov- 
entry in  the  evening  for  the  purpose  of  delivering 

o  Brewer,  Men  of  the  Exodus  of  1662,  pp.  38,  39. 
t  Reliquiae  Baxterianae,  Brewer,  Orme. 


HEROES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 


431 


I 


the  usual  lecture  in  the  grey  of  the  next  morning. 
As  the  night  was  dark,  he  lost  his  way,  and  after 
wandering  at  random  for  some  hours,  he  paused  at 
a  way-side  mansion  to  inquire  the  road.  The  ser- 
vant who  came  to  the  door  informed  his  master 
that  a  person  of  very  respectable  appearance  had 
lost  his  way.  The  gentleman  told  the  servant  to 
invite  him  in.  Baxter  readily  complied,  and  met 
with  a  very  hospitable  reception.  His  conversation 
was  such  as  to  give  his  host  an  exalted  idea  of  his 
good  sense  and  extensive  information. 

Baxter's  entertainer,  wishing  to  know  the  qual- 
ity of  his  guest,  said,  after  supper,  "  As  most  per- 
sons have  some  employment  or  profession  in  life,  I 
have  no  doubt,  sir,  that  you  have  yours."  Baxter 
replied  with  a  smile,  "Yes,  sir,  I  am  a  man-catcher." 
"  A  man-catcher,"  said  the  host,  "  are  you  ?  I  am 
very  glad ;  you  are  the  very  man  I  want.  I  am  a 
justice  of  the  peace  in  this  district,  and  I  am  com- 
missioned to  secure  the  person  of  Dick  Baxter,  who 
is  expected  to  preach  in  this  neighborhood  early 
to-morrow  morning.  You  shall  go  with  me,  and  I 
doubt  not  we  shall  easily  apprehend  the  rogue." 

Baxter  very  prudently  consented  to  accompany 
the  justice.  Accordingly  they  both  set  out  in  the 
early  dawn  for  the  Puritan  rendezvous.  On  their 
arrival,  a  number  of  persons  were  observed  hover- 
ing about;  but  seeing  the  carriage  of  the  justice, 
and  suspecting  his  intention,  they  would  not  enter 
the  house.  "  My  friend,"  said  the  justice  to  Bax- 
ter, "I  fear  they  have  obtained  some  information 


432         HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 

of  my  design.  Baxter  has  probably  been  apprized 
of  it,  for  you  see  tlie  people  will  not  assemble.  I 
think  that  if  we  extend  our  ride,  our  departure  may 
induce  them  to  collect,  and  on  our  return  we  can 
fulfil  our  commission." 

They  rode  on ;  when  they  returned  they  found 
their  efforts  useless,  for  the  people  still  appeared 
unwilling  to  ent^r  the  house.  The  magistrate, 
thinking  he  should  be  disappointed  in  his  object, 
remarked  to  his  companion  that,  "as  the  people 
were  much  disaffected  to  the  government,  he  would 
be  much  obliged  to  him  if  he  would  address  them 
on  the  subject  of  loyalty  and  good  behavior."  Bax- 
ter replied,  "  Perhaps  that  would  not  be  deemed 
sufficient ;  for  as  they  have  assembled  for  religious 
service,  they  would  not  be  satisfied  with  advice  of 
such  a  nature ;  but  if  the  magistrate  would  begin 
with  prayer,  I  make  no  doubt  that  they  would  listen 
to  our  remarks,  and  I  will  endeavpr  to  say  some- 
thing to  them."  The  justice,  putting  his  hand  to 
his  pocket,  said,  "  Indeed,  sir,  I  have  forgotten  my 
prayer-book,  or  I  would  readily  comply  with  your 
proposal.  However,  I  am  persuaded  that  a  person 
of  your  appearance  and  respectabihty  would  be  able 
to  pray  as  well  as  talk  with  them.  I  beg  therefore 
that  you  will  begin  with  prayer." 

Baxter  assented ;  then  alighting  from  the  car- 
riage, they  entered  the  building,  and  the  people, 
hesitating  no  longer,  followed  them  in. 

Baxter  commenced  the  service  by  prayer,  and 
prayed  with  that  seriousness  and  fervor  for  which 


HEROES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 


433 


I 


1 


J^J 


he  was  so  eminent.  The  magistrate  was  soon  melt- 
ed into  tears.  The  great  divine  then  preached  in 
his  accustomed  lively  and  zealous  manner.  When 
he  had  concluded,  he  turned  to  his  host  of  the  pre- 
vious night,  and  said,  "  I,'  sir,  am  that  Dick  Baxter 
of  whom  you  are  in  pursuit.  I  am  entirely  at  your 
disposal." 

The  magistrate  had  felt  so  much,  and  had  seen 
things  in  so  different  a  light  in  the  solemn  service 
of  the  grey  dawn,  that  he  laid  aside  all  enmity  to 
the  Non-conformists,  was  ever  after  their  firm  friend, 
and  became  a  sincere  Christian.*  Was  not  that  a 
sweet  and  blessed  ruse  ? 

John  Howe,  though  fifteen  years  the  junior  of 
Baxter,  was  that  great  theologian's  friend  and  fel- 
low-laborer. He  was  one  of  the  most  noble,  spirit- 
ual, and  gentle  of  men.  His  lofty  soul  was  bot- 
tomed on  combined  earnestness  and  refinement. 
To  the  glow  of  the  Puritan  religious  feeling,  he 
added  a  chastened  taste  and  a  singular  radiance  of 
imagination.t 

Howe  was  one  of  the  most  persuasive  of  preach- 
ers. Others  might  rouse  more  by  their  vehemence 
and  attract  more  by  their  doctrine,  but  none  ap- 
proached him  in  dignity  and  a  certain  mixture  of 
sweetness  and  sublimity  of  sentiment.  Especially 
when  he  descanted  on  the  glories  of  heaven,  and 
his  large  imagination  found  room  to  expatiate  amid 


ton. 


o  Independency  in  "Warwickshire,  by  J.  Sibree  and  M.  Cas- 


t  Tullock,  Palmer,  Brewer. 

Ptirltanii.  X9 


434        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

its  felicities,  lie  rose  into  a  pictured  eloquence  which 
was  wonderfully  impressive.* 

In  happier  days  Howe  had  been  chaplain  to 
Cromwell;t  but  weary  of  the  court,  he  had  pre- 
vailed upon  the  Protector  to  dismiss  him  to  his 
quiet  parish  at  Torrington ;  and  it  was  while  "  do- 
ing the  work  of  an  evangelist "  in  this  retired  nook 
that  the  Act  of  Uniformity  was  passed.^  Apropos, 
a  fine  anecdote  is  told  which  illustrates  at  once 
Howe's  catholicity  and  one  of  its  results. 

It  happened  in  Cromwell's  time  that  the  office 
of  "Principal"  in  Jesus  college,  Oxford,  became 
vacant,  and  Dr.  Seth  Ward  was  a  candidate  for  it. 
Knowing  Howe  to  be  high  in  favor,  Ward  went  to 
him  and  solicited  his  influence  with  the  Protector 
to  obtain  the  appointment.  Howe  introduced  him 
to  Cromwell,  and  so  strongly  recommended  him 
that,  though  the  place  had  been  already  promised 
another  appKcant,  Ward  obtained  an  equivalent 
annual  allowance.  Since  Ward  was  an  avowed 
Episcopalian,  this  exhibits  Howe's  broad  and  tol- 
erant spirit.§  Under  the  Eestoration,  Ward  was 
preferred  to  the  bishopric  of  Exeter,  and  Howe's 
parish  was  embraced  within  his  diocese.  A  few 
days  after  the  passage  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  as 
Howe  was  returning  to  his  rectory  from  some  neigh- 
boring chapel,  he  was  told  that  an  officer  had  been 

o  TuUook,  Palmer,  Brewer. 

f  Baxter's  Life,  Brewer,  Coleman,  English  Confessors,  etc. 
X  Stoughton,  Church  and  State  Two  Hundred  Years  aga 
§  Brewer,. p.  46. 


HEROES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 


435 


J 


to  his  house  armed  with  the  episcopal  authority  to 
arrest  him  as  a  non-conformist.  Howe  went  straight 
to  Exeter,  not  to  remind  him  of  former  obligations, 
but  "  to  await  his  lordship's  pleasure."  The  bishop 
contented  himself  with  attempting  to  induce  his 
sometime  benefactor  to  conform,  and  that  failing, 
he  stayed  all  proceedings.* 

A  few  years  later,  however,  Howe  was  ejected 
from  his  living  and  imprisoned.t  Afterwards  he 
•  lived  in  exile  during  five  years.  He  then  returned 
to  London,  and  became  the  pastor  of  a  congrega- 
tion of  dissenters  who  worshipped  in  Silver-street 
chapel. J  Here  he  lived  on  intimate  terms  with 
many  of  the  dignitaries  of  the  English  church,  and 
especially  with  Tillotson,  afterwards  archbishop  of 
Canterbury.§  His  virtues  and  eloquence  disarmed 
enmity,  and  he  might  have  gained  a  bishopric  by 
conforming.  But  he  remained  true  to  his  convic- 
tions, and  breasted  whatever  opposition  he  could 
not  placate  until  sheltered  beneath  the  aegis  of  king 
William's  toleration  in  1688.11  Howe's  hfe  touched 
the  year  1705 ;  then,  having  "  served  his  generation 
by  the  will  of  God,  he  fell  asleep,  and  was  gathered 
to  his  fathers."  Howe's  most  famous  work,  "  The 
Blessedness  of  the  Bighteous,"  is  the  fit  companion 
of  Baxter's  "  Saints'  Everlasting  Best  ''—par  nobUe 
fratrum — both  Christian  classics. 

o  Brewer,  p.  46.  f  Stoughton,  Coleman. 

X  Brewer,  p.  49. 

§  Williams,  Story  of  the  Two  Thousand  of  1662. 

II  Ibid.;  Brewer. 


436 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


Owen  was  another  of  the  great  men  of  that  time. 
If  Baxter  was  the  copious  defender,  if  Howe  was 
the  contemplative  idealist,  Owen  was  the  theolo- 
gian of  Puritanism.     "  The  main  interest  of  his  life 
and  all  the  interest  of  his  writings  is  theological. 
"Whatever  is  most  characteristic  and  essential  in 
Puritan  divinity  is  to  be  found  in  his  works.    A 
bolder,  more  unflinching  theorist  never  trod  the 
way  of  those   sublime    revelations   which    *  slope 
through  darkness  up  to  God.'     Along  with  scho- 
lastic earnestness,  profound  devotion  to  scriptural 
studies,  and  a  life  of  eminent  spirituality,  we  find 
in  Owen  a  combined  practical  sense  and  business 
faculty  which  make  him  to  resemble  Calvin  his 
prototype.   He  had  the  same  administrative  power, 
the  same  patience  and  coolness  of  purpose,  with  a 
far  higher  courtesy  and  tolerance  of  feeling.    Hard 
and  somewhat  dogmatic  in  intellect,  he  was  genial 
and  gentle  in  his  temper.      Eesolute  in  his  own 
views,  and  ever  ready  to  contend  for  them  with  his 
unresting  pen,  he  had  none  of  the  meanness  of  big- 
otry.    He  protected  Pocknock  in  his  Hebrew  pro- 
fessorship from  the  interference  of  the  parliamentary 
triers  when  vice-chancellor  of  Oxford,  and  he  left 
the  prelatists  unmolested  when  they  assembled  op- 
posite his  door  to  worship  according  to  the  Prayer- 
book."* 

Of  course  the  simple  "I  say  so"  of  the  govern- 
ment was  powerless  to  coerce  such  a  man  as  Owen 
into  conformity;   and  when  despotic  intolerance 

o  TuUock,  pp.  282,  2a3. 


» 


HEEOES  OF  THE  EXODUS.  437 

proffered  him  ease  and  honor  with  a  gag,  and  fealty 
to  conscience  with  stripes,  and  cried,  "  Choose,"  he 
did  choose,  and  with  a  brave  and  trustful  heart 
bore  and  forgave 

"The  spurns 
That  patient  merit  of  the  unworthy  takes." 

Although  the  ill-usage  of  John  Bunyan  began 
before  the  enactment  of  the  Bartholomew  act,  the 
persecution  which  hunted  him  into  Bedford  jail 
was  the  offspring  of  the  same  bigotry  which  gave 
birth  to  the  misshapen  progeny  of  1662— was  an 
elder  imp  of  the  same  vile  brood.     The  honored 
tinker  of  Elstow  therefore  properly  falls  into  rank 
beside  the  heroes  of  the  exodus.    It  has  been  well 
said,  that  "  in  the  character  and  history  of  John 
Bunyan,  the  great  Head  of  the  church  seems  to 
have  provided  a  lesson  of  special  significance  and 
singular  adaptedness  for  the  men  and  the  strifes  of 
our  own  time.     Born  of  the  people,  and  in  so  low 
a  condition  that  one  of  his  modern  reviewers,  by 
a  strange  mistake,  construed  his  self-disparaging 
admissions  to  mean  that  he  was  the  offspring  of 
gypsies;  bred  to  one  of  the  humblest  of  handi- 
crafts, and  having  but  the  scantiest  advantages  as 
to  fortune  and  culture,  he  yet  rose,  under  the  bless- 
ings of  God's  word  and  providence  and  Spirit,  to 
the  widest  usefulness,  and  to   an  eminence  that 
shows  no  tokens  of  decline."* 

o  W.  B.  WiUiams,  D.  D.,  in  Prefatory  Notice  of  "Kiches  of 
Bunyan,"  Amer.  Tr.  Soc,  1851. 


438 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


HEEOES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 


439 


Born  at  Elstow  in  1628,  Bunyan's  youth  was 
spent  in  wild  and  reckless  profanity.  But  even- 
tually liis  soul  was  clutched  "from  the  body  of  that 
death,"  and  a  little  later  he  attached  himself  to  a 
religious  society  of  the  Baptist  persuasion  in  Bed- 
ford, where  he  received  the  seal  of  his  apostleship.* 
Soon  he  began  to  preach ;  and  the  plain  speaking 
of  which  he  was  enamoured,  the  downright  sincer- 
ity of  his  character,  and  the  popularity  of  his  min- 
istry among  the  people,  made  him  obnoxious  to 
local  vigilance  and  jealousy.t 

On  one  occasion  Bunyan  was  cited  before  Jus- 
tice Keelin  for  refusing  to  attend  the  Established 
church,  and  also  for  being  an  upholder  of  unlawful 
conventicles.  He  was  obliged  to  hsten  to  such 
words  as  these,  uttered  in  the  name  of  English  jus- 
tice and  coming  from  the  lips  of  a  drunken  magis- 
trate :  "  Hear  your  judgment :  you  must  be  back  to 
prison,  and  there  lie  for  three  montlis ;  and  at  three 
months'  end,  if  you  do  not  submit  to  go  to  church 
to  hear  divine  service,  and  leave  your  preaching, 
you  shall  be  banished  the  realm.  If  after  such  a 
day  as  shall  be  appointed  you  to  be  gone,  you  shall 
be  found  in  England,  or  be  found  to  come  into  it 
again  without  the  king's  license,  you  must  stretch 
by  the  neck  for  it.    I  tell  you  plainly." 

To  this  random  and  vindictive  harangue,  Bun- 
yan replied,  "  As  to  this  matter,  I  am  at  point  with 
you;  for  if  I  were  out  of  prison  to-day,  I  would 

•  Tullock,  English  Puritanism,  etc. ;  Sketch  of  Bunyan. 
'    t  Oflfor,  Mem.  of  Bunyan ;  Philips,  Life  of  Bunyan. 


preach   the   gospel   to-morrow,   by  the   help   of 

God."* 

Bunyan  was  hustled  off  to  prison.  The  jails  of 
that  day  were  very  different  from  those  of  this  age. 
Instead  of  being  castles  in  miniature,  they  were 
magnificent  pigsties,  where  pollution  courted  dis- 
ease, and  incipient  wickedness  was  nourished  into 
gigantic  crime.  The  dungeon  into  which  Bunyan 
was  thrust  at  this  time  was  twelve  feet  square,  and 
built  between  two  of  the  arches  of  the  old  bridge 
of  Bedford.  Being  for  the  most  part  below  the 
water's  level,  the  walls  were  continually  damp  and 
sheeted  with  mildew.  In  this  den  Bunyan  was 
kept  twelve  years,  and  compelled  to  herd  with  a 
rabble  "of  male  and  female  profligates  and  felons.t 

Here  it  was  that  the  "  immortal  dreamer  "  saw 
his  beatific  visions,  created  his  own  little  world, 
peopled  it  with  the  glorious  creations  of  his  tran- 
scendent genius,  and  watched  his  "Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress" up  through  the  gate  Beautiful  to  the  Celestial 

City. 

Seated  in  his  moist  dungeon,  with  the  slime 
beneath  his  feet,  Bunyan  drew  upon  the  Scriptures 
for  his  doctrine,  and  upon  the  memory  of  his  own 
experience  for  his  pictures,  and  reared  on  this 
mixed  soil  the  grandest  allegory  known  to  human 
letters.  The  writings  of  the  Elstow  tinker  were  the 
outgrowth  of  his  Puritanism ;  and  a  religion  which 
€Ould  produce  men  like  Greatheart  and  Honest  and 

•  Offor,  Mem.  of  Bunyan ;  Philips,  Life  of  Bunyan ;  Ivimcy, 
History  of  English  Baptists.  f  Brewer,  pp.  42,  43.  . 


I 


410        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


Christian  and  Faithful  and  Hopeful,  and  of  which 
the  gentle  and  tender-hearted  Mercy  was  a  fair  rep- 
resentative, had  certainly  features  both  of  magna- 
nimity and  of  beauty.  There  is  a  simple  earnest- 
ness and  a  pure-minded  lovehness  in  Bunyan's 
highest  creations  that  are  very  touching.  Puritan- 
ism lives  in  his  pages— spiritually  and  socially— in 
forms  and  in  coloring  which  must  ever  command 
the  sympathy  and  enlist  the  love  of  all  good  Chris- 
tians. 

While  Bunyan,  immured  in  the  Bedford  jail, 
was  writing  himself  into  immortality,  his  brothers 
in  the  faith  were  ejected  from  the  ministry  of  that 
gospel  which  he  loved.    All" who  refused  to  give 
their  "assent  and  consent"  to  every  syllable  of  the 
Prayer-book,  were   ousted  from   their  cures;   the 
moderate  Episcopalians,  who,  with  the  great  pastor 
of  Kidderminster,  had  no  objection  to  "  a  form  of 
prayer,"  but  who  would  not  take  a  sweeping  and 
compulsory  oath;*   the  strict  Presbyterians,  who, 
having  been  inducted  into  the  ministry  by  the  lay- 
ing on  of  hands  of  the  elders,  refused  to  accept 
episcopal  ordination;  the  Independents,  headed  by 
John  Owen,  who,  though  broken  and  in  disgrace, 
"bated  no  jot  of  heart  or  hope;"    and  the  Bap- 
tists, led  by  such  worthies  as  Henry  Jesse,  Mr.  Sy- 
monds,  who  was  ejected  from  Southfleet,  in  Kent, 
and  who— according  to  Edwards,t  an  author  of 
those  times  who  endeavored  to  accomplish  by  abuse 

•  Tullock,  ReliqnioB  Baxterianoe,  etc. 
•  t  Author  of  Gangrsena. 


HEROES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 


441 


what  Hudihras  was  written  to  accomplish  by  satire — 
actually  propounded  the  strange  doctrine  of  reli- 
gious liberty,  favoring  "  toleration  and  freedom  for 
all  men  to  worship  God  according  to  their  con- 
sciences," and  by  Thomas  Hardcastle,  who  after- 
wards became  pastor  of  the  far-famed  Baptist 
chapel,  Broadmead,  Bristol.* 

Far  and  wide  over  the  land,  in  crowded  city 
churches,  in  county  towns,  in  rural  villages,  the 
same  sad  scene  was  enacted.  Thomas  Goodwin, 
formerly  president  of  Magdalen  college  ;  Flavel  of 
Dartmouth,  whose  thoughtful  learning,  exemplary 
piety,  and  impressive  zeal  formed  the  crown  and 
the  laurel  of  his  ministry ;  Edmund  Calamy,  whose 
week-day  lecture  "  was  attended  by  many  persons 
of  the  greatest  quality,  there  being  seldom  so  few 
as  sixty  coaches,"  and  who,  when  preaching  before 
General  Monk  after  the  Eestoration,  on  "filthy 
lucre,"  said,  "And  why  is  it  called  'filthy,'  but 
because  it  makes  men  do  base  and  filthy  things? 
Some  men,"  and  he  tossed  his  white  handkerchief 
towards  Monk's  face,  "  will  betray  three  kingdoms 
for  filthy  lucre's  sake  ;"t  Stephen  Charnock,  whose 
sound  judgment,  vivid  imagination,  and  affecting 
appeals  secured  him  a  well-deserved  popularity; 
JosexDh  Alleine,  "  tall  and  erect,  with  countenance 
sprightly  and  serene,"  to  whose  "lively  serious- 
ness" Baxter  bears  testimony,  as  also  to  his  "great 
ministerial  skilfulness  in  the  public  explication  and 

*  Brewer,  pp.  34,  35, 

t  Williams,  Story  of  the  Two  Thousand,  p.  57. 

19* 


442 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


application  of  the  Scriptures — so  melting,  so  con- 
vincing, so  powerful,"  of  whom  Newton  tells  us  that 
he  had  "  a  holy  heart  that  boiled  and  bubbled  up 
with  good  matter  ;"*  Thomas  Yincent,  the  intrepid 
pastor  who  preached  in  the  pulpits  of  clergymen 
who  fled  for  their  lives  when  London  wailed  under 
the  plague ;  Annesley,  a  name  so  revered  that  John 
Wesley  thought  it  an  epitaph  and  a  eulogium  to 
write  on  the  tombstone  of  his  mother,  "  She  was 
the  youngest  daughter  of  Dr.  Annesley  ;'*t  Dr. 
Thomas  Manton,  for  ten  years  incumbent  of  St. 
Paul's,  Covent  Garden,  whose  ministry  was  at- 
tended by  many  in  high  places  in  church  and 
state,  and  who  exercised  a  beneficent  and  wide- 
reaching  Christian  influence  ;  Matthew  Poole  of  St. 
Michael's  Queen,  in  London,  the  annotator,  whoso 
"  Synopsis,"  in  five  folio  volumes,  is  an  amazing 
treasure-house  of  learning;  Gale,  of  wondrous 
scholarship  ;X  John  Bay,  the  celebrated  naturalist ; 
Philip  Henry,  the  father  of  the  well-known  Mat- 
thew Henry  the  commentator,  who  was  stopped 
in  his  godly  labors  by  a  series  of  acts  as  op- 
pressive as  they  were  dishonorable  :§  these,  and 
a  host  besides,  "whose  works  do  follow  them," 
men  of  marvellous  strength  of  intellect,^  depth 
of  learning,  devotedness  of  spirit,  and  eff'ective 
piety,  were  saying  or  had  said  a  calm,  a  tender, 

•  Williams,  Story  of  the  Two  Thonsand,  p.  58, 

t  Southey,  Life  of  Wesley ;  Brewer. 

t  Williams,  Story  of  the  Two  Thousand,  p.  58. 

§  Brewer,  p.  52  ;  Sir  J.  B.  Williams,  Life  of  Philip  Henry. 


HEROES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 


443 


and  a  last  farewell  to  their  flocks.*    As  Words- 
worth has  hymned  it : 

"Nor  shall  the  eternal  roll  of  praise  reject 
Those  unconforming,  whom  one  rigorous  day 
Drives  from  their  cures,  a  voluntary  prey 
To  poverty  and  grief  and  disrespect, 
And  some  to  want,  as  if  by  tempest  wrecked 
On  a  wild  coast.    How  destitute!  did  they 
Feel  not  that  conscience  never  did  betray, 
That  peace  of  mind  is  virtue's  sure  effect ; 
Their  altars  they  forego  ;  their  homes  they  quit, 
.  Fields  which  they  love,  and  paths  they  daily  trod, 

And  cast  the  future  upon  Providence, 
As  men  the  dictates  of  whose  inward  sense 
Outweighs  the  world,  whom  self-deceiving  wit 
Lures  not  from  what  they  deem  the  cause  of  God."j-. 

In  the  memoirs  of  Philip  Henry  we  are  informed 
that  "  within  a  few  miles  around  him  there  were  so 
many  ministers  turned  out  to  the  wide  world,  strip- 
ped of  their  maintenance  and  exposed  to  continual 
and  unwonted  hardships,  as,  with  their  wives  and 
children— most  of  them  having  numerous  families — 
made  upwards  of  a  hundred  who  lived  on  Provi- 
dence, and  who,  though  oft  reduced  to  want  and 
straits,  were  not  forsaken,  but  were  enabled  to 
*  rejoice  in  the  Lord,  and  to  joy  in  the  God  of  their 
salvation'  notwithstanding;  to  whom  the  promise 
was  fulfilled,  *  So  shalt  thou  dwell  in  the  land,  and 
verily  thou  shalt  be  fed.'  "J    Though  God  frequently 
calls  his  servants  to  pass  through  severe  scenes  of 
self-denial,  of  trial,  of  suffering  in  the  path  of  duty, 
yet  he  does  not  desert  the  faithful,  but  succors  them 

*  Williams,  p.  59.  f  Wordsworth,  Eccles.  Sketches. 

X  Cited  by  Williams  in  his  Story  of  the  Two  Thousand,  p.  139. 


444        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

with  the  strong  arm  of  his  deliverance.  Though 
many  of  these  clergymen  were  brought  very  low, 
had  many  children,  were  harassed  by  persecution, 
and  though  their  friends  were  generally  poor  and 
unable  to  support  them,  yet  one  of  the  foremost  of 
them  solemnly  affirmed  that  "  in  all  his  acquaint- 
ance he  never  knew  nor  could  remember  to  have 
heard  of  any  Non- conformist  minister  being  in 
prison  for  debt."* 

There  are  many  well -authenticated  anecdotes 
illustrative  of  this  phase  of  the  exodus.  Let  us 
cite  one  or  two,  and  take  these  as  fair  specimens 
of  all. 

Mr.  Henry  Erskine,  who  had  been  minister  at 
Cornhill,  in  Northumberland,  suffered  much  after 
his  ejectment,  and  had  several  remarkable  interpo- 
sitions in  his  behalf.  He  resided  for  a  time  at  Dry- 
burgh,  wJiere  he  and  his  family  were  often  plunged 
in  distress ;  once  in  particular,  when  the  "  cruse  of 
oil  and  the  barrel  of  meal"  were  entirely  spent,  so 
that  when  they  had  supped  that  night,  there  re- 
mained neither  bread,  meal,  meat,  nor  money  in  the 
house.  In  the  morning  the  young  children  began 
to  cry  for  their  breakfast,  and  their  father  ende'av- 
ored  to  divert  them,  and  at  the  same  time  he  did 
what  he  could  to  encourage  his  wife  and  himself  to 
depend  upon  that  Providence  which  "feeds  the 
young  ravens  when  they  cry."  While  he  was  thus 
engaged,  a  farmer  knocked  at  the  door,  and  called 
for  some  one  to  come  and  help  him  off  with  his 

♦  Sir  J.  B.  Williams,  Life  of  Philip  Hemy. 


HEROES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 


445 


I 


load.  Being  asked  from  whence  he  came,  and 
what  he  would  have,  he  told  them  he  came  from 
the  Lady  Eeburn,  with  some  provisions  for  Mr. 
Erskine.  He  was  told  that  he  must  be  mistaken, 
and  that  his  load  was  most  likely  for  another  Mr. 
Erskine  who  dwelt  at  Shirfield,  in  the  same  town. 
The  man  replied,  "  No,  I  know  what  I  'm  about ; 
these  things  were  sent  to  Mr.  Henry  Erskine. 
Come,  some  one,  and  help  me  off  with  the  load, 
else  I  will  throw  it  down  at  the  door."  He  was 
assisted  in  carrying  the  sack  into  the  house.  On 
opening  it,  it  was  found  to  be  filled  with  meat  and 
meal.  This  incident  gave  the  pious  pastor  no  small 
encouragement  to  rely  upon  his  bountiful  Benefac- 
tor in  all  future  straits  of  a  kindred  nature.* 

At  another  time  this  same  clergyman  was  in 
Edinburgh,  and  he  was  so  reduced  that  he  had  but 
three  half-pence  in  his  pocket.  As  he  walked  about 
the  streets,  not  knowing  what  to  do,  or  what  course 
to  steer,  he  was  accosted  by  a  countryman  who 
asked  if  he  was  not  Mr.  Henry  Erskine.  "  Yes," 
said  the  minister.  "Then,"  said  the  man,  "1  have 
a  letter  for  you,"  which  he  accordingly  delivered. 
In  it  were  enclosed  seven  Scotch  ducatoons,  with 
these  words  written  :  "  Sir,  receive  this  from  a  sym- 
pathizing friend.  Farewell."  There  was  no  name  ; 
and  when  Mr.  Erskine  turned  to  question  the  mes- 
senger; he  was  gone.f 

Mr.  Oliver   Heywood,  ejected  from   Coley,  in 

*  Coleman,  Two  Thousand  Confessors,  p.  144. 
f  Ibid.,  nt  antea. 


446         HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


YorksMre,  also  suffered  greatly  after  the  loss  of 
his  income.  On  one  occasion  his  children  became 
impatient  for  food,  and  he  called  his  servant  Mar- 
tha, who  would  not  desert  the  family  in  their  dis- 
tress, and  said  to  her,  "  Martha,  take  a  basket,  and 
go  to  Hahfax :  call  upon  Mr.  North,  a  shop-keeper 
there,  and  desire  him  to  lend  me  five  shiUings.  If 
he  is  kind  enough  to  do  so,  buy  such  things  as  you 
know  we  most  want.  The  Lord  give  you  good- 
speed  ;  and  meantime  we  will  offer  up  our  petition 
to  Him  who  *  feedeth  the  young  ravens  when  they 
cry.' "  The  girl  went,  but  on  reaching  the  house 
of  Mr.  North  her  heart  failed  her,  and  she  passed 
and  repassed  the  door  again  and  again  without 
going  in  to  tell  her  errand.  At  length  Mr.  North 
himself  coming  to  the  shop-door  and  witnessing  her 
strange  behavior,  called  her  to  him  and  asked  her 
if  she  was  not  Mr.  Heywood's  servant.  When  she 
told  him  that  she  was,  he  said  to  her,  "  I  am  glad 
to  see  you,  as  some  friends  have  given  me  five 
guineas  for  your  master,  and  I  was  just  thinking 
how  I  could  send  the  money."  Upon  this  Martha 
burst  into  tears,  and  told  her  story.  He  was  much 
affected,  and  told  her  to  come  to  him  if  the  like 
necessity  should  again  return. 

Having  procured  the  necessary  provisions,  she 
hastened  back  to  them,  when,  upon  her  entering 
the  house,  the  children  eagerly  examined  the  bas- 
ket, and  the  father,  hearing  the  servant's  story, 
smiled  and  said,  "  The  Lord  hath  not  forgotten  to 
be  gracious ;  his  word  is  true  from  the  beginning ; 


•^!i 


,:,/ 

<!^/ 


f 


HEROES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 


447 


*  They  that  seek  the  Lord  shall  not  want  any  good 
thing.'  "* 

One  of  the  most  marked  traits  of  these  heroes 
of  the  exodus  was  their  irrepressibility,  if  we  may 
coin  a  word.  No  suffering  could  break  the  heart 
of  their  faith,  no  despotism  could  choke  their  gos- 
pel. They  were  "instant  in  season,  out  of  season," 
in  proclaiming  the  truth  which  God  had  given  unto 
them.  They  uttered  it  from  the  pulpit  so  long  as 
they  were  permitted  to  do  so ;  when  driven  thence, 
they  proclaimed  it  in  unsympathizing  courts,  shot 
it  from  beneath  their  prison  bars,  and  scattered 
it  in  benedictions  from  the  scaffold  itseK.  When 
one  channel  was  blocked  up,  they  discovered  or 
created  new  ones.  When  they  could  not  preach, 
they  wrote,  and  the  press  became  a  broader  pulpit. 
Many  were  the  shifts  to  which  they  were  put  in 
the  prosecution  of  their  •  purpose.  Mr.  Thomas 
JoUie,  after  his  ejectment,  preached  in  his  own 
house.  To  avoid  being  informed  against — for  he 
was  a  man  of  prudence  as  well  as  zeal — he  adopted 
this  contrivance :  there  being  in  the  common  sit- 
ting-room a  staircase  with  a  door  at  the  bottom, 
he  stood  to  preach  on  the  second  step;  the  door 
was  cut  in  two,  and  while  the  lower  part  was  shut, 
the  upper  part,  being  fastened  to  the  other  by  hin- 
ges, would  fall  back  on  brackets,  so  as  to  form  a 
desk.  To  this  was  fixed  a  string,  by  which  he  could 
easily  draw  it  up  on  intelligence  being  given  of  the 
approach  of  informers  by  those  who  were  appointed 

*  Coleman,  Two  Thousand  Confessors,  ut  antea. 


\ 


448 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


as  sentinels  to  give  notice;  lie  tlien  immediately 
went  up  stairs,  so  that  when  the  enemy  entered 
the  room,  they  could  not  prove  that  he  had  been 
preaching.* 

Mr.  Henry  Maurice,  ejected  from  Strettin,  in 
Shropshire,  was  once  preaching  in  a  private  house, 
when  a  constable  entered  and  commanded  him  to 
desist.  The  undaunted  clergyman  charged  him  in 
the  name  of  the  great  God,  whose  word  he  was 
preaching,  to  forbear  molesting  him  as  he  would 
answer  for  it  at  the  last  day.  The  officer  hereon 
sat  down,  trembling,  heard  the  preacher  patiently 
till  he  concluded,  and  then  quietly  departed.t 

These  instances  show  that  the  story  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  ejected,  gloomy  as  is  its  general  tone, 
is  not  unrelieved  by  gleams  of  romantic  adventure 
and  marvellous  interpositions.  It  must  have  been 
a  singular  spectacle  which  one  of  these  conventicles 
presented,  when  hundreds  would  assemble  in  some 
obscure  lane,  at  dead  of  night,  to  listen  to  some 
beloved  pastor,  in  an  old-fashioned  chapel,  fitted 
with  secret  doors,  leading  to  the  roofs  of  the  adjoin- 
ing houses,  so  that,  on  the  approach  of  the  enemy, 
at  the  signal  of  the  sentinels  placed  at  the  entrance, 
the  whole  congregation  would  vanish  in  a  moment, 
and  the  astonished  constables  would  find  nothing 
within  but  empty  benches. | 

Such  was  the  life  which  the  Non-conformists  led 

*  Coleman,  Two  Thousand  Confessors,  pp.  148,  149. 

\  Ibid. 

X  story  of  the  Ejectment,  lecture  by  Rev.  T.  McCrie,  D.  D. 


1 


* 


HEKOES  OF  THE  EXODUS. 


449 


under  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  and  under  what  was  ^ 
termed  the  ''  Five-Mile  Act,"  which  prohibited  all 
ejected  ministers  from  residing  within  ^ye  miles  of 
their  own  cures,  and  which  Burnet  pronounced  "  a 
step  in  the  progress  of  intolerant  cruelty  which  only 
just  fell  short  of  the  stake  and  the  fire."* 

The  faithfulness  of  these  men  to  conscience, 
their  faith  in  God,  their  meekness,  their  devoted- 
ness  to  their  life-work — these  were  the  traits  which 
lifted  them  above  their  persecutors,  which  crowned 
them  with  undying  fame,  which  made  them  walk 
upon  the  stars.  Ere  long  the  indignity  with  which 
they  were  treated  created  a  popular  sympathy  and 
indignation  which  helped  largely  to  necessitate  the 
revolution  of  1688.  'T  is  only  the  universal  history. 
The  framers  of  unjust  laws  punish  themselves ;  the 
contrivers  of  cruel  and  wicked  acts  are  pursued  by 
a  just  avenger,  and  their  treatment  of  others  made 
to  recoil  upon  themselves. 

"Nee  lex  est  justior  ulla, 
Quam  necis  artifices  arte  perire  suA." 

The  more  prominent  of  these  sufferers  have  had 
their  epitaph  written  by  the  muse  of  history ;  but 
that  noble  army  of  "  obscure  martyrs  "  who  toiled 
not  for  the  "  all  hail  hereafter,"  but  were  content 
with  the  simple  performance  of  their  duty,  these 

"Have  no  place  in  storied  page, 
No  rest  in  marble  shrine ; 
They  are  past  and  gone  with  a  perished  age, 
They  died,  and  *made  no  sign.* 

*  Burnet's  Own  Times. 


I 


/ 


/ 


450        HISTOBY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

But  work  that  shall  find  its  wages  yet, 
And  deeds  that  their  Grod  did  not  forget, 

Done  for  the  love  divine — 
These  were  their  mourners,  and  these  shall  be 
The  crown  of  their  immortality. 

"They  healed  sick  hearts  till  theirs  were  broken, 
And  dried  sad  eyes  till  theirs  lost  sight ; 

"We  shall  know  at  last  by  a  certain  token 
How  they  fought  and  fell  in  the  fight. 

Salt  tears  of  sorrow  unbeheld, 

Passionate  cries  unchronicled,  • 
And  silent  strifes  for  the  right ; 

Angels  shall  count  thepa,  and  earth  shall  sigh 

That  she  left  her  best  children  to  battle  and  die."* 

*  Edwin  Arnold's  Obscure  Martyrs. 


^^ 


;!/ 


y 


// 


THE  SCOURGES. 


451 


CHAPTEE   XXXIII. 

THE  SCOURGES. 

England  now  became  a  Pantheon  of  impiety. 
Eeligion  was  puritanical;  virtue  was  disloyalty; 
honor  was  treason.  Good  men  were  hunted  when 
alive,  and  disturbed  when  dead.    Those  Puritans 

0 

who,  in  happier  days,  had  been  interred  in  West- 
minster Abbey,  in  Henry  Tilth's  chapel,  or  within 
the  precincts  of  the  collegiate  church  of  Westmin- 
ster, of  both  sexes  and  all  ranks,  were  dug  up  and 
thrown  into  one  pit  in  St.  Margaret's  church-yard.* 
Even  the  grave  is  no  protection  from  the  ghoul. 

Profligate  wits  slobbered  over  decency  with  ob- 
scene jests.  Never  had  public  morality  been  at  so 
low  an  ebb.  "I  remember,"  says  Sir  Matthew 
Hale,  "  that  when  Ben  Jonson,  in  his  play  of  the 
'Alchemist,'  introduced  Anartus  in  derision  of  the 
Puritans,  with  many  of  their  phrases  taken  out  of 
Scripture,  in  order  to  render  that  party  ridiculous, 
the  comedy  was  detested  because  it  seemed  to  re- 
proach religion  itself;  but  now,  when  the  Puritans 
were  brought  again  upon  the  stage  in  their  pecul- 
iar habits,  and  with  their  distinguishing  phrases  of 
Scripture,  and  exposed  to  the  laughter  of  specta- 
tors, the  show  met  with  approbation  and  applause." t 

*  Neale,  voL  2,  p.  514 ;  Pepys'  Diary,  1667. 
t  Cited  in  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  547.    • 


4o2 


HISTORY  OE  THE  PURITANS. 


The  story  of  the  wild  men  and  manners  of  that 
age  reads  like  a  chapter  culled  from  the  pages  of  an 
obscene  romance.  Even  the  homage  of  hypocrisy 
was  no  longer  paid  to  virtue.  The  play-houses 
were  nests  of  prostitution.*  The  king,  the  queen, 
the  courtiers  wandered  through  the  streets  of  Lon- 
don masked,  noisy,  and  profane.  The  houses  of 
quiet  citizens  were  entered  by  these  titled  masquer- 
aders,  and  indecencies  were  committed  whose  very 
memory  paints  the  cheek  with  blushes.  The  ladies 
of  the  court  hounded  on  these  abhorrent  revels; 
they  were  carried  about  in  hackney  chairs,  preceded 
by  footmen  waving  flaming  flambeaux;  and  once, 
't  is  said,  the  queen's  chairman,  not  knowing  who 
she  was,  left  her  at  midnight  to  return  to  Whitehall 
in  a  cart.t 

Not  only  did  licentiousness  taint  the  manners 
and  corrupt  the  hearts  of  the  aristocracy  of  the 
Kestoration,  it  poisoned  the  letters  of  the  epoch. 
From  Dryden  down  to  Durfey,  the  common  charac- 
teristic was  hard-hearted,  swaggering  sensuality,  at 
once  inelegant  and  inhumane.^  The  omnipresent 
profligacy  of  the  plays,  satires,  songs,  and  novels  of 
that  day  is  a  plague-spot,  marked,  ineffaceable,  on 
English  literature.  Nothing  was  more  character- 
istic of  the  times  than  the  care  with  which  poets 
contrived  to  put  all  their  loosest  verses  into  the 

*  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  547. 

t  Rochester's  Trial  of  the  Poets,  Jeremy  Collier,  Dryden's 
Life,  etc. 

X  Shiel's  Life  of  Southern ;  Some  Account  of  the  English 
Stage. 


/ 


9 


/ 


/ 


I 


THE  SCOURGES. 


463 


mouths  of  women.  The  compositions  in  which  the 
greatest  license  was  taken  were  the  epilogues.  These 
were  always  recited  by  favorite  actresses;  and  noth- 
ing charmed  the  depraved  play-goers  so  much  as  to 
hear  hues  grossly  indecent  repeated  by  a  beautiful 
girl  who  was  supposed  to  have  not  yet  lost  her  inno- 
cence.* 

Jeremy  Collier  broke  many  a  stout  lance  against 
this  reckless  Jezebel  of  English  comedy ;  but  even 
he  could  not  effect  much  against  the  spirit  of  his 
age;  and,  disgusted  with  his  effort  at  reform,  he 
might  have  recited  those  matchless  words  which 
Milton  puts  into  the  mouth  of  his  chaste  lady  in  the 
Mask  of  Comus : 

"Enjoy  your  dear  wit  and  gay  rhetoric, 
That  hath  so  well  been  taught  her  dazzling  fence  ; 
Thou  art  not  fit  to  hear  thyself  convinced  ; 
Yet  should  I  try,  the  uncontrolled  worth 
Of  this  pure  cause  would  kindle  my  rapt  spirit 
To  such  a  flame  of  sacred  vehemence. 
That  dumb  things  should  be  moved  to  sympathize, 
And  the  brute  earth  would  lend  her  nerves  to  shake. 
Till  all  thy  impure  structures,  reared  so  high. 
Were  shattered  into  heaps  o'er  thy  false  head."t 

"  The  servile  judges  and  sheriffs  of  those  evil 
days,"  observes  Macauley,  "  could  not  shed  blood 
so  fast  as  the  poets  called  for  it.  Cries  for  more 
victims,  hideous  jests  on  hanging,  bitter  taunts  on 
those  who,  having  stood  by  the  king  in  the  hour  of 
danger,  now  advised  him  to  deal  mercifully  and 
generously  by  his  vanquished  enemies,  were  pub- 

•  Macauley ;  Pepys'  Diary,  1667 ;  Walpole's  Anecdotes. 
f  Milton's  Poetical  Works,  Mitford's  edition,  vol.  %  p.  259. 


454        HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


licly  recited  on  the  stage;  and  that  nothing  might 
be  .wanting  to  the  guilt  and  the  shame,  were  recited 
by  women  who,  having  long  been  taught  to  discard 
all  modesty,  were  now  taught  to  discard  all  com- 
passion."* 

God  now  sent  a  scourge,  ghastly,  awful,  unpre- 
cedented, to  choke  these  impious  revels,  and  to 
cleanse  this  lazar-house.  In  1665  the  plague  ap- 
peared. The  terror  had  visited  England  before — 
once  in  the  days  of  king  James,  and  once  before 
that — but  never  before  had  it  spread  its  wings  and 
swooped  to  such  a  desolating  banquet.  In  the  win- 
ter of  1664  it  clutched  its  first  victims.t  Two  men 
sickened  in  Drury  Lane.  Headache,  fever,  a  burn- 
ing sensation  in  the  stomach,  dimness  of  siglit,  livid 
spots  upon  the  chest,  these  were  the  symptoms.^ 
Gradually  the  dread  disease  spread;  the  weekly 
mortality  lists  told  the  freezing  story.  Through 
the  spring  it  slyly  crept,  ever  increasing  its  depre- 
dations, until  by  June,  1665,  it  threw  off  all  disguise, 
opened  its  ghastly  court,  and  in  imitation  of  the  ar- 
istocracy, held  its  revels,  and  laughed  in  a  hideous 
carnival.  In  one  night  four  thousand  died ;  and  in 
one  month,  ten  thousand.§  Men  fled  in  terror.  All 
who  could  quit  the  smitten  town  made  haste  to  do 
so ;  but  multitudes  tied  by  poverty  or  by  duty  to 
the  city  pavements  might  not  leave. |i 

"  One  shop  after  another  was  closed ;  one  dwell-  ' 

♦  MacatQey,  Hist,  of  Eng.,  vol.  1,  p.  317. 

t  Palmer's  Non-conformist  Memorial,  sec.  6 ;  Hume. 

X  Pepys^Diary.  ^  Ibid.  ||  Ibid. 


THE  SCOUBGES. 


455 


ing  after  another  was  robbed  of  its  inmates.    The 
long  red  cross,  with  the  words,  '  Lord,  have  mercy 
on  us,'  inscribed  upon  the  door,  indicated  that  with- 
in death  was  at  work.     The  watchmen  appointed 
by  the  magistrates  stood  at  the  entrance,  armed 
with  halberts,  to  prevent  all  communication  be- 
tween  the  inmates  and  outsiders.    Instead  of  the 
busy  crowds  that  once  lined  the  thoroughfares,  a 
few  persons  might  be  seen  walking  cautiously  along 
the  middle  of  the  path,  afraid  of  each  other's  touch. 
'The  highways  were  forsaken,  and  the  travellers 
walked  in  byways.'     A  coach  was  rarely  seen,  save 
when,  with  curtains  closely  drawn,  it  conveyed  some 
plague- smitten  mortal  to  the  pest-house.     The  wain, 
laden  with  timber  and  other  material,  had  disap- 
peared; men  had  no  heart  to  build,  and  the  half- 
finished  structure  was  left  to  premature  decay.    The 
cart  bearing  provisions  came  not  within  the  city- 
gate  ;  the  market  was  held  in  the  outskirts,  where 
the  seller  feared  to  touch  the  buyer,  and  the  money 
was  dipped  in  vinegar  before  passing  from  hand  to 
hand.     The  London  cries,  the  sound  of  music,  the 
gay  laugh  of  thoughtless  pleasure,  the  din  of  trade 
had  ceased. 

•'  'Life  and  thought  had  gone  away  side  by  side.' 

The  deep,  unbroken  solitude  of  the  great  city  waa 
overwhelming.  Whole  streets  were  desolate,  doors 
left  open,  windows  shattered  with  the  wind,  houses 
empty. 

"  Suddenly  did  the  disease  smite  the  sufferers. 


466         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

Sometimes  they  dropped  down  in  tlie  streets ;  oth- 
ers perhaps  had  time  to  go  to  the  next  stall  or  porch, 
*  and  just  sit  down  and  die.'  The  man  who  drove 
the  death-cart  expired  on  his  way  to  the  huge  pit 
dug  for  the  reception  of  thousands,  or  fell  dead 
upon  the  heap  of  corpses  that  he  was  tumbling  into 
that  rude  sepulchre.  A  person  went  home  hale  and 
strong;  *at  evening  there  was  trouble,  and  before 


^A 


THE  SCOURGES. 


457 


,?! 


* 


morning  he  was  not. 

Filled  with  awe,  great  numbers  crowded  to  the 
churches,  crying,  "What  shall  we  do  to  be  saved?" 
Many  of  the  parishes  were  deserted;  all  worldly 
priests  deserted  their  posts  in  this  crucial  hour. 
Some  of  the  Estabhshed  clergy  remained,  "  faithful 
among  the  faithless  found,"  but  the  large  majority 
fled  in  wild  terror.t  Then  the  Non-conformists  re- 
placed them ;  the  ejected  ministers  broke  the  bread 
of  life  to  these  hungry  and  smitten  souls ;  and  all 
parties  have  since  united  to  praise  the  faithful  phi- 
lanthropy which  characterized  their  efforts.^ 

"People  flocked  to  preaching,"  says  Vincent,  one 
of  the  most  tireless  of  the  Puritan  laborers  through 
the  plague,  "  and  every  sermon  was  unto  them  as 
if  it  were  their  last.  Old  Time  seemed  now  to 
stand  at  the  head  of  the  pulpit  with  his  great  scythe, 
saying  with  a  hoarse  voice,  *  Work  while  it  is  called 
day ;  at  night  I  will  mow  thee  down!'  Grim  Death 
seemed  to  stand  at  the  side  of  the  pulpit  with  his 

♦  StoTigliton,  pp.  307,  308. 

t  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  534 ;  Stoughton. 

1  Ibid.,  Pepys'  Diary,  etc. 


{ 


i 


sharp  arrow,  saying,  *  Do  thou  shoot  God's  arrows, 
and  I  will  shoot  mine.'  The  Grave  seemed  to  lie 
at  the  foot  of  the  pulpit,  with  dust  in  her  bosom, 
croaking, 

** 'Louden  thy  cry 

To  God, 

To  men, 
And  now  fulfil  thy  trust ; 
Here  thou  must  lie ; 

Mouth  stopped, 

Breath  gone, 
And  silent  in  the  dust.'* 

One  hundred  thousand  victims  glutted  the  maw  of 
the  pestilence ;  and  it  did  not  cease  its  ravages  until 
the  fall  frosts  nipped  its  sting."t 

Strange  to  say,  the  weight  of  this  calamity  did 
not  stun  the  drunken  court  into  sobriety.  "  It  will 
amaze  all  posterity,"  affirms  Neale,  "  to  learn  that, 
in  a  time  both  of  pestilence  and  when  the  Puritan 
ministers  were  jeoparding  their  lives  in  the  service 
of  the  souls  of  distressed  and  dying  citizens  of  Lon- 
don, the  prime  minister  and  his  creatures,  instead 
of  mourning  over  the  nation's  sins  and  meditating 
a  reformation  of  manners,  should  pour  out  all  their 
vengeance  upon  the  Non-conformists,  in  order  to 
make  their  condition  more  insupportable.  One 
would  have  thought  that  such  a  judgment  from 
heaven,  and  such  a  generous  compassion  in  the 
ejected  clergy,  should  have  softened  the  hearts  of 
their  most  cruel  enemies ;  but  the  Puritans  were  to 

*  Vincent,  God's  Terrible  Voice  in  the  City. 
t  Pepys'  Diary,  Stoughton,  Neale,  Hume. 
pnritniiB.  20 


458 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THE  SCOURGES. 


459 


be  cnislied  in  defiance  of  the  rebukes  of  Providence; 
and  as  if  the  judgment  of  Heaven  was  not  heavy 
enough,  nor  the  legislation  sufficiently  severe,  the 
bishops  threw  their  weight  into  the  scale ;  for  in  the 
very  midst  of  the  plague  Archbishop  Sheldon  sent 
orders  to  the  several  diocesans  of  his  province  to 
return  to  him  the  names  of  all  ejected  non-conform- 
ing ministers,  with  their  places  of  abode  and  man- 
ner of  life.  The  design  of  this  inquiry  was,  to  gird 
the  laws  yet  closer  upon  the  dissenters,  and  by  de- 
priving them  of  their  already  slender  means  of  live- 
lihood, to  starve  them  into  exile  or  conformity. 

"The  vices  of  England  not  being  sufficiently 
punished  by  pestilence  and  by  war,  which  then 
raged  with  Holland,  it  pleased  Almighty  God,  in 
1666,  to  suffer  the  city  of  London  to  be  laid  in  ashes 
by  a  dreadful  conflagration,  which  blazed  through 
three  days,  and  consumed  thirteen  thousand  two 
hundred  dwelling-houses,  eighty -nine  churches, 
among  which  was  St.  Paul's,  and  many  public 
structures,  schools,  libraries,  and  stately  edifices.* 
Multitudes  lost  their  goods  and  merchandise ;  the 
whole  town  changed  its  face ;  many  of  the  nobility 
lost  the  greater  part  of  their  substance,  and  some 
few  people  lost  their  lives.  The  king,  the  duke  of 
York,  and  the  courtiers  witnessed  the  desolation, 
but  had  not  the  power  to  check  its  progress,  till  at 
length  it  ceased  almost  as  wonderfully  as  it  began. 

*  Most  of  the  antiquities  of  old  London  were  lost  at  this  time, 
and  the  city  as  rebuilt  was  essentially  different  from  the  London 
of  the  Tndors. 


I 


Moorfields  was  filled  with  household  goods  ;  the  cit- 
izens were  forced  to  lodge  in  huts  and  tents ;  and 
many  families  who  were  in  the  last  week  in  pros- 
perity, were  now  reduced  to  beggary,  and  obliged 
to  commence  the  world  again."* 

The  plague  was  the  offspring  of  profligacy  and 
total  neglect  of  all  sanitary  laws.  Sensuality  was 
its  father,  and  filth  was  its  mother.  The  great' fire 
is  said  to  have  been  lighted  by  Jesuit  incendiaries ; 
and  one  of  these  was  executed  on  his  own  confes- 
sion.t  Between  these  scourges  Puritanism  gained 
a  brief  respite,  and  gasped  for  breath.  "  But  none 
of  these  calamities  had  any  further  influence  upon 
the  cotirt  prelates  than  that  they  dared  not  perse- 
cute the  preachers  so  severely  for  the  present.''^ 


•  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  535-539. 


t  Ibid. 


t  Ibid. 


460 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 


CHAPTEE   XXXIV. 


THE  LAST  REVEL. 

Following  hard  upon  the  plague  and  the  great 
fire  .came  the  downfall  of  Clarendon,  premier  of 
England.  He  lost  the  seals  through  his  haughty 
insolence  and  opposition  to  the  plainest  maxims  of 
constitutional  law.*  Clarendon  was  a  bitter  hater, 
and  he  used  every  wile  to  compass  the  destruction 
of  Puritanism.  "It  was  a  great  ease  that  befell 
good  men  when  he  was  impeached  and  banished," 
says  Kapin ;  "  for  he  was  wont  to  decoy  those  whom 
he  hated  into  conspiracies  or  pretended  plots,  and 
then  upon  those  rumors  innocent  people  were  laid 
in  prison,  so  that  no  one's  life  was  safe."t 

Burnet  informs  us  that  "the  king  was  highly 
offended  at  the  unnatural  behavior  of  the  bishops. 
Sheldon  and  Morley,  who  kept  close  by  Lord  Clar- 
endon, the  great  patron  of  persecuting  power,  lost 
the  royal  favor  :  the  former  never  recovered  it  ;^the 
latter  was  sent  from  court  into  his  diocese."J 

Meanwhile  the  rectitude,  the  diligence,  the  pa- 
tience of  the  dissenters  placated  popular  resent- 
ment ;  pity  bred  proselytes ;  and  under  the  fiercest 
frown  of  oppression,  their  numbers  visibly  increas- 
ed.§    Not  only  so,  a  nobler  generation  of  church- 

*  Hallam,  Hume,  Macauley. 

t  Rapin,  Hist.  Eng.,  voL  2.  J  Burnet's  Own  Times. 

§  Palmer's  Non-conformists'  Memorial ;  Neale. 


THE  LAST  REVEL. 


461 


men  now  came  on  the  stage.  Attempts  were  made 
from  time  to  time  to  abate  the  rigors  of  those  stat- 
utes which  pressed  conformity ;  and  the  threatening 
aspect  of  foreign  affairs  gave  constantly  increasing 
authority  to  these  efforts.  Protestantism  was  men- 
aced on  the  Continent.  Louis  XIY.  was  in  the  full 
flush  of  his  career  of  conquest.  Spanish  Flanders, 
overrun  by  the  French  armies,  had  just  been  yield- 
ed in  full  sovereignty  to  that  haughty  monarch  who 
had  said,  "  L'etat  cest  moi  /" 

Charles  II.,  bribed  by  Louis'  gold  and  cajoled 
by  his  French  mistresses,  looked  on  unconcerned  ;* 
but  England  was  alarmed.  The  moderate  church- 
men and  the  moderate  Cavaliers  began  to  think 
that  it  was  time  to  initiate  a  reform.  Awed  by  the 
critical  situation  abroad,  and  spurred  by  the  grow- 
ing insolence  of  the  Romanist  party  at  home,  such 
lawyers  as  the  lord-keeper  Bridgman  and  Chief- 
justice  Hale,  and  such  bishops  as  Tillotson  and 
Stillingfleet,  did  their  utmost  to  curb  intolerance; 
esteeming  it  folly  to  batter  brother  Protestants  with 
whom  they  disagreed  on  minor  points,  when  the 
common  enemy,  Eome,  thundered  at  the  gate.t 

Parliament  too  had  changed.  The  Commons 
were  weary  of  voting  supplies  which  were  lavished 
in  debauchery ;  and  they  were  disgusted  with  the 
feeble  part  which  England  now  played  in  the  Euro- 
pean drama.  Many  a  Cavalier  recalled  the  iron  daj's 
of  the  Protectorate,  and  sighed  when  he  contrasted 

*  Hanis,  Life  of  Cliarles  H.  ;  Vaughan,  Hist,  of  Eng. ;  James 
n.,  Mem.  t  Rapin,  Burnet's  Own  Times. 


462 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUBITANS. 


THE  LAST  EEVEL. 


403 


that  time  with  this  degenerate  age,  when  the  island 
stooped  to  be  the  paid  lackey  of  a  neighbor  court. 

These  things  made  wise  men  anxious  to  secure 
peace  and  amity  in  the  Protestant  camp ;  and  the 
moderates  even  went  so  far  as  to  draw  up  a  pro- 
gramme of  comprehension.*  Then  the  party  of  the 
past  made  a  rally.  The  House  of  Commons  was 
won  to  vote  that  no  such  proposition  should  be 
made  on  its  floor.  The  jubilant  bishops  hurried  to 
the  king,  and  bothered  him  into  the  issue  of  a  proc- 
lamation which  directed  the  strict  enforcement  of 
the  penal  code  against  the  Puritans. t 

We  have  said  that  the  king  was  bothered  into 
this  action  :  perhaps  he  was  houglit ;  for  the  "  gift " 
of  a  sum  of  money  would,  notoriously,  purchase  the 
royal  spendthrift's  signature  to  any  document.  J  At 
all  events,  it  is  certain  that  Charles  favored  a  toler- 
ation, because  he  desired  to  permit  the  Romanists, 
whose  coreligionist  he  secretly  was  even  now,  to 
secure  a  prestige  which  they  could  not  gain  while 
imder  the  ban.  So  far  however  as  their  personal 
security  went,  they  were,  and  had  been,  safely  shel- 
tered under  the  prerogative.  The  court  swarmed 
with  them.  The  duke  of  York  was  an  open  and  en- 
ergetic Jesuit.  The  chapels  of  the  foreign  ambas- 
sadors welcomed  them  to  the  interdicted  service, 
and  the  mass  was  chanted  at  Whitehall  by  the  con- 
fessors of  the  queen.§ 

•  Carrel's  Counter  Kevolution  in  England  ;  Neale,  Bnmet 
t  Eapin,  Neale,  Hume.  X  Harris,  Carrel,  Neale,  etc 

§  Baxter's  Life  and  Times ;  Palmer,  Bapin,  Burnet 


Yet  at  such  an  hour,  menaced  from  abroad, 
insidiously  assailed  from  within,  certain  bishops  of 
the  Established  church  inaugurated  a  new  perse- 
cution. Conventicles  were  forbidden ;  Non-con- 
formists were  once  more  hunted,  and  such  men 
as  Baxter  and  Taverner  were  flung  into  Newgate. 
The  Conventicle  Act  expired  in  1670;  but  it  was 
galvanized  into  new  life  by  a  vote  of  the  Commons, 
and  made  even  more  vicious  than  before,  by  the 
addition  of  two  clauses — one  of  which  bound  all 
magistrates,  under  fine,  to  its  stern  execution,  and 
thereby  drove  many  honest  and  able  judges  from 
the  bench  ;*  and  the  other  of  which  provided  that 
the  act  should  be  construed  most  largely  and  bene- 
ficially for  the  suppression  of  conventicles,  and  for 
the  encouragement  and  justification  of  all  persons 
employed  in  its  execution.t 

This  at  once  armed  a  multitude  of  informers, 
who  took  on  as  many  shapes  as  Proteus,  and  who 
were  as  mischievously  active  and  vindictive  as  Sa- 
tan in  Milton's  poem. 

Still  the  dissenters  braved  the  act.  Indeed,  the 
Quakers  made  no  attempt  at  concealment,  meeting, 
with  imperturbable  heroism,  at  their  accustomed 
hours  and  places.  When  dragged  to  prison,  they 
made  no  resistance,  and  would  pay  no  fines  :  and 
when  their  term  of  confinement  expired,  they  went 
again  to  their  wonted  resorts.    All  this  was  done 


*  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  549. 

t  Statutes  of  the  Eealm  ;  Pari.  Hist.  ;  Carrel. 


464 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THE  LAST  REVEL. 


465 


without  bravado,  but  with  the  calm  dignity  of  mar- 
tyrdom.* 

Parliament  at  length  became  alarmed  at  the  in- 
crease of  popery ;  and  the  Commons,  after  cement- 
ing an  alliance  with  Sweden  and  Holland,  known  as 
"  the  Triple  Alliance,"t  proceeded  to  petition  the 
king  for  the  banishment  of  the  Jesuits  and  the 
suppression  of  the  Romanist  worship  in  England.^ 
Charles  equivocated ;  the  Commons  persisted.  Then 
the  dehminair ^monarch,  dissolved  the  Parhament; 
and  calling  to  his  assistance  five  councillors — call- 
ed, from  the  initial  letters  of  their  names,  the  Ca- 
BAL§ — undertook  to  govern  by  the  prerogative. 

Charles  was  bribed  into  this  course  by  the  bright 
Louis  cTor  of  France  and  by  the  still  brighter  eyes 
of  several  new  French  mistresses.il  If  he  aimed  at 
absolute  government,  he  would  not  trouble  himself 
sufficiently  to  gain  his  goal,  and  was  amply  satisfied 
when  his  corrupt  ministers  acquired  liberty  to  enact 
their  pleasuie.  Whatever  occurred,  he  was  not  to 
be  troubled.  His  idea  of  monarchy  was,  ability  to 
draw  without  limit  on  the  national  treasury  for  the 
gratification  of  his  private  tastes ;  wealth  and  honors 
with  which  to  hire  persons  to  help  him  kill  the  time ; 
and  "  friends  "  willing  to  assist  him,  when  the  state 
was  brought  by  maladministration  to  the  depths  of 

*  Sewel's  Hist,  of  the  Quakers ;  Neale. 

t  Sir  William  Temple's  Memoirs.  J  Pari.  Hist. 

§  Lord  Clifford,  a  papist ;  Astley  Cooper,  afterwards  Lord 
Shaftsbury ;  the  duke  of  Buckingham,  a  debauche ;  Earl  Arling- 
ton, a  concealed  papist ;  and  Lord  Lauderdale. 

II  Memoirs  of  James  II. ;  Carrel,  Rapin. 


V 


humiliation  and  the  brink  of  ruin,  in  keeping  the 
unwelcome  truth  from  the  purlieus  of  his  seraglio* 

His  new  councillors  were  precisely  to  his  taste. - 
One  was  an  avowed  papist;  another  was  a  con- 
cealed one ;  still  another  was  a  debauclie  /  and  the 
last  was  an  atheist.t  And  now  both  king  and  coun- 
cil became  the  puppets  of  France,  mere  echoes  of 
Louis  XrV.  Seven  hundred  thousand  pounds  in 
French  gold  were  poured  into  the  pockets  of  this 
junto  of  profligates  within  twenty-four  months — a 
very  handsome  retaining  fee.  Then  Louis  sent  his 
programme  across  the  channel :  the  gradual  intro- 
duction of  popery,  under  the  guise  of  absolutism ; 
two  steps  immediately  to  be  taken,  the  marriage  of 
the  duke  of  York,  recently  a  widower  by  the  death 
of  Clarendon's  daughter,  and  the  dissolution  of  the 
Triple  Alliance  by  a  war  with  HoUand.J 

This  mandate  was  obeyed.  James  married  the 
princess  of  Modena,  an  ItaHan  papist  ;§  and  a  few 
scurrilous  medals,  struck  at  the  Hague,  to  satirize 
Charles'  amours,  served  as  a  pretext  for  war  with 
the  Dutch.jl 

Then  the  grateful  council,  thinking  that  Louis 
had  paid  them  sufficiently  well  to  warrant  some 
extra,  uninspired  zeal,  hatched  a  notable  scheme. 
It  was  proposed,  under  cover  of  the  dispensing  power, 
to  enlist  the  Puritans  against  the  church,  and  under 

♦  Macauley,  Hist.  Eng.  t  Ibid. ;  Neale,  vol.  2. 

%  Sir  William  Temple's  Memoirs. 
§  Ibid.  ;  Memoirs  James  11.  ;  Neale. 
II  Motley's  Dutch  Eepublic. 

20* 


466         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

the  banner  of  the  court,  by  offering  them  the  pro- 
tection of  the  crown,  and  proclaiming  a  general 
•toleration,  in  which  the  Komanists  should  be  in- 
cluded.* 

Against  this  scheme  Lord-keeper  Bridgman  pro- 
tested, not  because  he  did  not  favor  toleration,  but 
because  he  denied  the  constitutionality  of  such  an 
act ;  and  his  protest  cost  him  his  office.t 

"  The  Protestant  Non-conformists,"  says  Neale, 
"  disliked  the  dispensing  power,  and  were  not  for- 
ward to  accept  of  their  liberty  in  that  way.  They 
were  sensible  that  the  indulgence  was  not  granted 
out  of  love  for  them,  nor  would  continue  any  longer 
than  it  would  serve  the  interest  of  popery.'*;]:  Never- 
theless many  ministers  availed  themselves  of  the 
indulgence.  Vast  crowds  flocked  to  the  dissenting 
chapels,  and  a  cautious  and  moderate  vote  of  thanks 
was  presented  to  the  king ;  but  all  trembled  for  the 
result.§ 

At  the  same  time  the  Papists,  who  already  rival- 
led the  Protestants  in  numbers  as  they  surpassed 
them  in  craft,  thronged  from  every  corner  of  the 
metropolis,  audacious,  insolent,  menacing.  Church- 
men were  challenged  to  dispute  with  them;  they 
threatened  to  assassinate  all  who  denounced  their 
creed ;  and  pointing  to  the  court,  and  jingling  their 
foreign  gold,  they  seemed  already  to  regard  the  isl- 
and as  their  own. 

In  1673  Parliament  met.    The  dissatisfaction 


THE  LAST  REVEL. 


467 


•  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  554. 

t  Ibid.  ;  Kussell's  Life  of  Kussell. 


t  Neale.       ^  Ibid. 


was  general.  The  king  was  out  of  funds.  The 
House  refused  to  vote  a  shilling,  until  the  king  sur- 
rendered the  dispensing  power.  The  Cabal  urged 
Charles  to  make  a  bold  stand  for  the  prerogative, 
and  promised  him  success.  But  it  was  not  in  him 
to  make  a  persistent  stand  for  any  thing ;  and  since 
his  mistresses  required  money,  he  was  easily  per- 
suaded by  the  tearful  fair  ones  to  sell  that  usurped 
authority  to  the  Commons.* 

By  this  action,  the  Non-conformists  and  the  Eo- 
manists  stood  alike  uncovered  and  exposed  ;  but  the 
passage  of  the  Test  Act,  a  few  days  later,  which  con- 
fined all  places  of  profit  or  trust  to  conformists  alone, 
was  a  severe  blow  at  the  Papists,  since  many  of 
them  held  high  office,  and  it  at  once  broke  the  Ca- 

bal.t 

Now  once  more  the  Puritans  entered  the  dark 
valley.  The  whole  pack  of  informers  were  again 
unleashed.  Dissenters  of  all  creeds  were  united  in 
the  bond  of  a  common  misfortune.  True  to  the 
genius  of  their  faith,  the  Romanists  began  to  plot. 
James  was  a  bigot  and  a  zealous  proselyter.  He 
was  heir  apparent.  Charles  was  a  papist ;  but  he 
was  soft,  purposeless,  and  inefficient,  more  devoted 
to  his  amours  than  to  his  creed.  Rome  needed  a 
king  who  should  be  made  of  sterner  stuff.  It  was 
therefore  resolved  to  assassinate  one  brother,  and 
to  enthrone  the  other;  and  this  purpose  got  fresh 
vitality  from  the  conclusion  of  peace  with  Holland, 
which  occurred  in  1678.   From  these  feelings  sprang 

*  Bapin ;  Carrel ;  Mackintosh,  Hist.  Revolution  1688.    f  Ibid. 


468        HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

the  Bye^House  Plot  Eumors  of  a  conspiracy  reach- 
ed the  court.  Those  in  the  secret  professed  to 
laugh ;  the  king  gave  the  reports  no  credit.  "  It  is 
not  probable,"  said  Charles  to  Lord  Hahfax,  as 
their  chat  turned  one  day  upon  these  sayings,  "  that 
papists  should  conspire  to  kill  me ;  have  I  not 
always  been  their  countenancer  ?"  "  Yes,  sire,"  re- 
turned his  lordship,  "  you  have  been  too  kind  to 
them ;  but  they  know  that  you  wiU  only  trot,  and 
they  want  a  prince  that  will  gallojx'* 

When  the  plot  was  discovered,  the  king  was  pen- 
sive for  some  time ;  but  England  did  not  recover 
from  the  shock  so  quickly  as  did  the  thoughtless 
and  giddy  Stuart.  Now,  as  before  in  the  case  of 
the  gunpowder-plot,  great  exertions  were  made  to 
connect  the  Puritans  with  the  exploded  conspiracy : 
but  unhappily  for  the  success  of  this  project,  a  little 
book  was  discovered  in  a  meal-tub  in  the  house  of  a 
prostitute,  which  contained  the  whole  scheme  of  the 
fiction ;  and  this  bob  to  the  larger  kite  was  called 
the  Meal-tiih  Plot:\ 

Through  all  these  years  the  aUiance  between 
the  moderate  churchmen  and  the  Non-conformists 
grew  closer  and  closer.  Keligion  was  dear  to  both ; 
the  legends  of  liberty  stirred  the  blood  of  either ; 
they  were  united  by  common  opposition  to  the  Eo- 
man  tenets ;  they  looked  with  the  same  alarm  upon 
the  gloomy  portents  of  the  time ;  and  they  clasped 
hands  over  minor  differences,  in  an  effort  to  rescue 

•  Mackintosh,  Hist.  Revolutioii  1688.  ^ 

t  Ibid. ;  Neale. 


THE  LAST  REVEL. 


469 


I 


their  country  from  the  abyss  towards  which  the  Stu- 
arts hurried  it.*  « 

In  the  elections  of  1679,  all  parties  exerted 
themselves.  The  low-churchmen  and  the  dissent- 
ers made  common  cause ;  the  high-churchmen  and 
the  tories  did  the  same.  When  Parliament  met,  its 
tone  was  so  independent  that  Charles  prorogued  it. 
Assembled  again  in  1680,  the  liberahsts  were  still 
more  prominent ;  the  two  great  parties  assumed  the 
historic  names  of  Whigs  and  Tories,  names  still  in 
vogue  ;  and  the  Whigs  clutched  their  first  trophy  in 
the  triumphant  passage  of  these  two  resolutions, 
which  marked  an  epoch : 

"  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  the  Com- 
mons, that  the  acts  of  Parliament  made  in  the 
reigns  of  Elizabeth  and  king  James  against  popish 
recusants  ought  not  to  be  extended  against  Prot- 
estant dissenters. 

"  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  House, 
that  the  prosecution  of  Protestant  dissenters  upon 
the  penal  laws  is  at  this  time  grievous  to  the  sub- 
ject, weakening  to  the  Protestant  interest,  an  en- 
couragement to  popery,  and  dangerous  to  the  pub- 
lic peace."t 

The  ParHament  at  the  same  time  attempted  to 
change  the  succession,  by  setting  aside  the  duke  of 
York  on  account  of  his  inimical  creed.  J 

Upon  this,  Charles  abruptly  dissolved  it.     In 

•  *  Rnssel's  Life  of  Russell ;  Lord  Lonsdale's  Memoirs, 
t  Pari.  Hist.,  Statutes  of  the  Realm,  Mackintosh,  Neale. 
\  Mackintosh,  Neale,  Macauley. 


470 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


1681  another  Parliament  assembled  at  Westminster 
Hall;  but  the  king,  learning  that  the  BiU  of  Exdii- 
sion  was  to  be  again  brought  in,  angrily  dismissed 
this  also,  after  a  session  of  seven  days.* 

This  was  the  last  Parliament  that  Charles  ever 
faced.  The  old  laws  still  stained  the  Statute-book. 
The  resolutions  of  the  Commons  had  been  declara- 
tory, not  judicial;  and  the  court,  sore  and  ruffled, 
hastened  to  put  the  merciless  machinery  once  more 
in  motion.  Charles  had  a  double  motive  for  his  old 
abhorrence  of  the  Puritans:  they  were  now  Whigs 
in  politics,  as  well  as  dissenters  in  religion ;  so  the 
persecution  which  he  now  set  afoot  knew  no  cessa- 
tion, and  was  without  relief. 

Sadly  closed  the  record.  In  February,  1685, 
Charles  11.,  struck  by  apoplexy,  dropped  the  scep- 
tre from  his  nerveless  hand.  His  mistresses  lav- 
ished their  tenderness  upon  him  to  no  purpose. 
Lingering  through  four  days,  he  apologized  to  those 
who  stood  about  his  couch,  and  said  with  a  wan  smile, 
"  I  have  been  an  unconscionable  time  dying ;  but  I 
hope  you  will  excuse  it."t  A  priest  was  brought, 
the  room  was  cleared,  the  royal  penitent  was  ab- 
solved by  Eoman  hands,  and  on  the  6th  of  February, 
a  piece  of  crape  laid  over  a  cold  form  announced 
that  Charles  Stuart  had  danced  through  the  revel 
of  his  life. 

•  Mackintosli,  Neale,  Macauley.        t  Pepys'  Diary,  Macauley. 


THROUGH  THE  WILDERNESS. 


471 


CHAPTEB  XXXV. 


THROUGH  THE  WILDERNESS  TO  CANAAN. 

In  a  former  century,  England,  by  the  death  of 
Edward  VI.  and  the  accession  of  Mary  Tudor  of 
bloody  memory,  had  been  lassoed  to  the  feet  of 
Rome.  History  seemed  about  to  repeat  itself. 
Charles  II.  was  now  succeeded  by  his  brother 
James  II.—"  Belial  by  Moloch." 

The  two  most  prominent  traits  of  the  new  king's 
character  were  bigotry  and  absolutism  ;*  he  was 
under  the  complete  dominion  of  those  congenial 
twins.  Bishop  Burnet,  who  was  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  James,  says  that  "he  was  very  brave 
in  his  youth,  and  so  much  magnified  by  Monsieur 
Turenne,  that,  until  his  marriage  lessened  him,  he 
really  clouded  Charles,  and  passed  for  the  superior 
genius.  He  had  a  great  desire  to  understand 
affairs ;  and  in  order  to  that,  he  kept  a  constant 
journal  of  all  that  passed.  The  duke  of  Bucking- 
ham once  gave  a  short  but  severe  character  of  the 
two  brothers ;  it  was  the  more  severe  because  true. 
*  The  king,'  said  he,  *  could  understand  things  if  he 
would,  and  the  duke  would  understand  things  if  he 
could.'  James  had  no  true  judgment,  and  was  soon 
determined  by  those  he  trusted ;  but  he  was  obsti- 
nate against  all  other  advices.     He  was  bred  with 

*  Clarendon's  Autobiography,  vol.  1,  p.  122 ;  Hiyne,  voL  2, 
p.  564. 


472 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


Ligli  notions  of  the  royal  authority,  and  laid  it  down 
as  a  maxim,  that  all  who  opposed  the  king  were 
rebels  in  their  hearts.  He  was  perpetually  in  one 
amour  or  another,  and  was  not  very  nice  in  his 
choice ;  so  that  Charles  used  to  say,  *  I  believe  that 
my  brother  has  his  mistresses  given  him  by  his 
priests  for  penance.'  "* 

The  new  monarch's  initial  move  was  to  utter  a 
solemn  lie ;  but  it  served  its  purpose  and  cozened 
England.  Assembling  the  privy -council  while 
Charles  lay  dead  in  an  adjoining  room,  he  affirmed 
that  he  had  no  purpose  but  to  maintain  the  exist- 
ing laws,  civil  and  ecclesiastical — that  he  planted 
himself  upon  the  statu  quo.\ 

This  declaration  surprised  and  delighted  the 
island,  and  copies  of  it  were  scattered  far  and  wide. 

* 

Yet  James  was  so  awkward  a  dissembler,  that  on 
the  first  Sunday  after  his  accession  he  went  openly 
to  mass,  still  an  illegal  act ;{  he  publicly  announced 
that  his  royal  brother  had  been  shriven,  and  had 
died  an  avowed  Eomanist  ;§  he  even  sent  Caryl  on 
an  embassy  to  Eome  to  negotiate  with  the  pontiff 
for  the  readmission  of  England  into  the  bosom  of 
the  holy  see.ll  Indeed  so  hot  and  reckless  was  his 
conduct,  that  pope  Innocent  XI.  cautioned  him 
against  his  precipitate   zeal,   and  urged   him  to 

•  Burnet's  Own  Times,  p.  114. 

t  Dalrymple,  Mem.  of  Great  Britain,  vol.  1,  pp.  162,  163  ;  Life 
of  Lord  North  ;  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  564  ;  Clark's  Life  of  James  IL 
X  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  564 ;  Dalrymple. 
§  Evelyn's  Diary,  Barillion's  Memoirs, 
ii  Mackintosh,  Hist,  of  Revolution  of  1688  ;  Hume. 


THROUGH  THE  WILDERNESS.        473 

"make  haste  slowly."*  Bonquillo,  the  Spanish 
ambassador  at  the  English  court,  also  ventured  to 
remonstrate  with  the  king,  and  to  advise  him  not 
to  assent  too  readily  and  openly  to  the  dangerous 
counsel  of  the  priests  who  thronged  his  court.  "Is 
it  not  the  custom  in  Spain,"  queried  James,  "for 
the  king  to  consult  with  his  confessor  ?"  "  Aye," 
was  the  reply,  "  and  't  is  for  that  very  reason  our 
affairs  succeed  so  ill."t 

When  Parliament  met,  in  May,  1685,  James  de- 
manded the  settlement  of  a  revenue  upon  him  for 
life,  and  insinuated  that  he  would  not  depend  upon 
the  precarious  grants  of  the  grudging  Commons. 
He  also  had  the  impudence  to  reiterate  his  promise 
to  preserve  the  existing  government  in  church  and 
state ;  whereon  the  cajoled  Parliament  voted  him  a 
life  annuity  of  two  million  pounds,  and  then  pre- 
sented an  address  requesting  him  to  issue  a  procla- 
mation for  the  strict  enforcement  of  the  penal  code 
against  dissenters  from  the  English  ritual.  J 

In  so  far  as  the  laws  which  the  Parliament  had 
invoked  bore  upon  Protestant  non-conformists, 
James  hastened  to  give  their  execution  his  cordial 
assent ;  but  the  magistracy,  never  before  so  servile 
as  now,  were  aware  of  the  king's  predilections,  and 
while  the  Puritans  were  given  no  quarter,  they  re- 
fused to  issue  any  process  against  Eomanists.§ 

An -event  now  occurred  which  armed  the  king 

*  Mackintosh,  Hist,  of  Eevolution  of  1688  ;  Hume, 
t  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  564. 

%  Dalrymple  ;  Fox,  Hist,  of  the  Reign  of  James  H. 
§  Ncale,  Mackintosh,  DalrjTnple,  Evelyn's  Diary. 


474 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


with  a  new  pretext  for  severity.  The  more  promi- 
nent movers  of  that  parliamentary  bill  of  exclusion, 
which  had  been  framed  to  exclude  James  from  the 
throne,  and  which  had  provoked  such  ill-feehng 
between  Charles  and  the  Commons  in  the  recent 
reign,  fearing  that  James  would  sacrifice  them  to 
his  resentment,  had  quitted  England  on  his  acces- 
sion, and  sought  an  asylum  on  the  Continent.* 
Here  they  began  to  plot.  The  duke  of  Monmouth, 
a  natural  son  of  Charles  II.,  was  given  the  leader- 
ship in  a  conspiracy  to  dethrone  James  by  rallying 
the  Scottish  Presbyterians  and  the  English  dissent- 
ers to  the  support  of  the  insurrection.  The  Quix- 
otic attempt  was  made.  Argyle  landed  on  the  north 
side  of  the  Tweed ;  Monmouth  landed  on  the  west 
coast  of  the  island.  Bands  of  ill-armed,  undisci- 
plined, and  foredoomed  guerillas  were  collected, 
and  a  crazy  effort  was  made  to  unseat  a  sovereign 
who  had  not  yet  forfeited  the  loyal  good-will  of  the 
people.  Parliament,  then  in  session,  voted  to  ad- 
here to  James ;  passed  a  biU  of  attainder  against 
Monmouth ;  equipped  an  army ;  and  on  the  5th  of 
July,  1685,  met  and  routed  the  insurgents,  and  cap- 
tured its  chiefs.  Argyle  was  executed  at  Edin- 
burgh ;  Monmouth  was  beheaded  at  London ;  and 
James,  elated  and  vindictive,  determined  to  wreak 
his  cruel  vengeance  on  the  disaffected,  and  to  la}^ 
the  heavy  arm  of  a  conqueror  upon  the  Puritans  at 
large.t 

*  Life  of  Lord  North  ;  Macauley,  Hist  of  England. 

t  Palmer,  Non-conformist  Memorial ;  Neale  ;  Evelyn's  Diary. 


THROUGH  THE  WILDERNESS.        475 

Jeffries  was  at  this  time  Chief-justice  of  the 
King's  Bench,  a  position  won  by  those  atrocious 
traits  which  have  made  him  immortally  infamous. 
Charles  had  never  Uked  him.    His  insolence  and 
cruelty  provoked  the  merry  monarch's  scorn  and 
disgust.     "The  man  has  no  learning,  no  sense,  no 
manners,   and   more  impudence  than  ten  carted 
street-walkers,"  cried  he  one  day.     But  a  feUow- 
feeling  drew  James  towards  him.    His  lack  of  rev- 
erence for  law,  his  insensibihty  to  shame  made  him 
a  useful  tool;  so  the  court  bought  his  "  forehead  of 
brass  and  his  tongue  of  venom ;"  and  a  beast  so 
habitually  drunk  that  he  was  said  to  have  cUmbed 
up  every  lamp-post  and  lain  in  every  gutter  in  Lon- 
don, was  installed  in  the  chief-justiceship  of  Eng- 
land as  the  successor  of  that  consummate  and  un- 
spotted lawyer  Sir  Matthew  Hale. 

This  wretch  was  dispatched  into  the  insurrec- 
tionary district,  and  every  step  he  took  was  on  a 
corpse.  His  atrocious  circuit  is  to  this  day  the 
scoff  and  the  execration  of  the  English  bar.^ 

James  was  emboldened  by  this  success  to  re- 
sume his  schemes  for  the  naturalization  of  Koman- 
ism.  Like  all  despots,  he  preferred  the  abnormal 
forces  to  the  legal  forces  of  society.  He  wished  to 
back  his  absolutism  by  bayonets.  The  recent  emeute 
was  an  excellent  pretext;  and  on  the  plea  that  the 
security  of  tranquil  government  necessitated  it,  he 
announced  his  determination  to  maintain  a  stand- 

•  A  long  account  of  tliis  circuit  is  given  in  Palrymple  and  in 
Macauley. 


476 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUKITANS. 


ing  army.*  Then,  when  this  point  was  gained,  he 
threw  off  the  mask.  His  council  was  packed  with 
papists;  the  most  obnoxious  prerogatives  of  the 
crown  were  usurped  anew;  the  dispensing  and  sus- 
pending powers  began  to  be  in  daily  use ;  the  court 
of  High  Commission  was  dug  up,  and  it  was  filled 
with  Eomanists ;  all  the  offices  of  state  were  usurped 
by  papists;  elections  were  subjected  to  his  arbi- 
trary will ;  charters  of  corporations  were  annulled ; 
judges  were  displaced  if  they  ventured  to  refuse  to 
play  the  parrot  and  repeat  the  sentence  of  the 
court;  petitions  even  the  most  modest,  and  from 
persons  of  the  highest  rank,  were  treated  as  sedi- 
tious and  criminal;  buildings  of  all  kinds,  churches, 
chapels,  colleges,  seminaries,  were  erected  for  the 
Eomanists  at  the  national  expense;  Scotland  was 
harried  into  popery;  Ireland  was  surrendered  wholly 
to  the  domination  of  that  creed;  the  English  uni- 
versities were  revolutionized ;  Magdalen  college  be- 
came a  pocket  edition  of  the  Sorbonne ;  a  gigantic 
effort  was  naade  to  leash  England  to  the  pope's  tri- 
umphal car.t 

Astounded  at  this  "  Punic  faith,"  Protestantism 
could  at  first  find  no  voice  even  to  protest.  The 
dissenters  were  effectually  gagged  and  thinned  by 
the  legal  campaigns  of  Jeffries,  and  their  destruc- 
tion was  a  part  of  the  plan  for  the  strengthening  of 

o  Kapin,  Hume,  D'Araux ;  Life  of  Lord  North  ;  Memoir  of 
James  U. 

f  Ibid. ;  Dalrymple,  Neale  ;  Declaration  of  the  Prince  of  Or- 
ange ;  Fox,  Hist,  of  the  Keign  of  Jiiraes  11.,  etc. 


THROUGH  THE  WILDERNESS.       477 

the  Eomish  horde.*  But  the  church  of  England 
was  as  yet  unbound;  it  could  protest.  Startled 
into  prodigious  activity  by  this  assault  upon  what 
was  most  loved  and  revered  in  England,  the  bish- 
ops did  exert  themselves.  They  began  to  preach 
against  the  Koman  tenets.  The  king  forbade  even 
this  mild  opposition.  The  bishops  persisted.  James 
summoned  Dr.  Sharpe  and  the  bishop  of  London 
before  his  High  Commission,  and  had  both  sus- 
pended.t 

And  now,  feeling  the  importance  of  allying  him- 
self with  the  dissenters  in  the  war  against  the  church 
which  he  was  inaugurating,  James  suspended  the 
penal  laws,  declared  it  to  be  his  purpose  to  tolerate 
all  sects,  affirmed  that  he  had  only  consented  to  the 
recent  persecution  of  the  Non-conformists  because 
obliged  to  do  so  by  the  Episcopal  bench ;  indeed 
he  used  every  wile  in  order  to  ingratiate  himseK 
with  the  Puritans  and  gain  their  aid  against  the 
EstabHshment.J 

Of  course  the  Non-conformists  did  not  scruple 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  hberty  now  granted,  but 
they  understood  the  motives  of  the  king,  and  they 
were  not  cozened  by  the  toleration  into  silence  or 
content.§  Patriots  as  well  as  Christians,  they  could 
not  but  look  with  reprobation  upon  a  despotism 
bolder  than  that  of  Elizabeth,  meaner  than  that  of 
Charles. 


*  Memoirs  of  James  H.,  Dsilrymple,  Evelyn's  Diary,  Borillon, 
Neale.  f  Hume,  Dalrymple,  Macauley,  Mackintosh,  Fox. 

t  Ibid.  §  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  607. 


478         HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

When  the  Puritans  reviewed  the  record  of  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  counted  two  millions  of 
pounds  wrung  from  them  since  the  Kestoration  by 
illegal  fines;  when  the j remembered  their  mutilated 
persons,  their  wrecked  prosperity,  their  scattered 
families,  and  their  outraged  neighbors ;  when  they 
collected  lists  of  their  brother  sufferers,  and  reck- 
oned eight  thousand  who  had  died  in  prison,  and 
sixty  thousand  who  had  suffered  since  the  recall  of 
the  Stuarts,  as  martyrs  for  conscience,*  they  were 
in  no  mood  to  listen  with  patience  to  the  homilies 
of  a  Jesuit  king  whose  utterances,  as  all  knew,  went 
no  deeper  than  his  lips. 

But  while  he  coquetted  with  the  Puritans,  James 
carried  on  a  vigorous  war  against  the  churchmen. 
Six  prelates  were  arrested  in  1688,  and  flung  into 
the  Tower  for  refusing  to  acknowledge  the  legality 
of  the  dispensing  power.t  "When  the  people,'* 
says  Hume,  "  beheld  these  fathers  of  the  church 
brought  from  court  under  the  custody  of  a  guard ; 
when  they  saw  them  embarked  in  vessels  on  the 
Thames  and  conveyed  towards  the  Tower,  all  their 
affection  for  liberty,  all  their  zeal  for  religion  blazed 
up  at  once.  The  whole  shore  was  covered  with 
crowds  of  prostrate  spectators,  who  at  once  im- 
plored the  blessing  of  these  holy  pastors,  and  ad- 
dressed their  petitions  to  heaven  for  protection 
during  the  extreme  danger  to  which  their  country 

•  Delaune's  Plea  for  the  Non-conformists  ;  cited  in  Neale,  voL 
2,  pp.  607,  608. 

t  Mackintosh,  Fox,  Neale,  Evelyn's  Diary,  Burnet 


THROUGH  THE  WILDERNESS.       479 

and  their  faith  now  stood  exposed.  Even  the  sol- 
diers, seized  with  the  contagion,  flung  themselves 
upon  their  knees,  and  craved  the  benediction  of 
those  criminals  whom  'they  were  appointed  to 
guard."* 

"When  the  trial  of  these  prelates  occurred,  the 
same  imposing  ceremony  of  grief  and  veneration 
was  exhibited  by  the  sympathetic  populace;  and 
when  it  was  announced  that  they  were  acquitted, 
the  wildest  enthusiasm  was  displayed.! 

This  haughty  insult,  offered  by  James  to  the 
English  church,  divorced  its  affection  from  him, 
and  rendered  all  future  reconciliation  impossible. 
Yet  he  did  not  pause.  Claiming  to  be  above  the 
law,  grasping  prerogatives  which  had  brought  his 
father  to  the  block,  he  strutted  with  heedless,  blun- 
dering haste  towards  the  achievement  of  his  plot — 
the  conquest  of  the  island,  and  the  submission  of 
its  torn  and  strangled  liberties  to  Eome.  For  this, 
magna  charta  was  torn  in  pieces  and  scattered  to 
the  winds.  For  this,  Protestant  officers  were  cash- 
iered in  the  army.t  For  this,  Hull  and  Portsmouth, 
the  two  principal  sea-ports  of  England,  were  seized 
and  held  by  Eomanist  conspirators.§  For  this, 
Irish  papists  were  welcomed  to  Whitehall  in  shoals, 
and  sent  to  garrison  important  towns. II    For  this 

o  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  582. 

f  Burnet's  Own  Times,  Borillon,  D'Araux,  State  Trials. 
X  Fox,  Hist,  of  Reign  of  James ;  Dahymple,  Hist,  des  Revolu- 
tions d'Angleterre,  liv.  11. 

§  Life  of  Lord  North  ;  Bramston's  Memoirs  ;  Maddntosh,  etc. 
II  Neale,  vol.  2,  p.  617 ;  Burnet's  Own  Times. 


480 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


the  court  of  England  stooped  to  beg  the  king  of 
France  to  advance  his  accursed  gold.  For  this, 
Whitehall  became  a  stipendiary  of  Yersailles,  and 
Louis  XIY.  poured  into  England  more  than  three 
million  Louis  d'or,*  For  this,  that  puissant  nation, 
which  had  been  the  arbiter  of  Europe,  sank  to  be 
the  spaniel  of  petty  continental  princes,  and  com- 
peted in  political  importance  with  the  duchy  of 
Savoy. 

But  even  in  those  directions  in  which  James 
flattered  himself  that  he  had  made  most  progress, 
incidents  which  constantly  cropped  out  showed  that 
he  had  made  the  least.  He  was  accustomed  to 
"encamp  the  army  on  Hounslow-heath,  that  he 
might  both  improve  their  discipline,  and  by  so 
stern  a  spectacle  overawe  his  mutinous  metropolis. 
A  popish  chapel  was  openly  erected  in  the  midst 
of  the  camp,  and  every  effort  was  made  to  bring 
over  the  soldiers  to  that  communion.  It  was  time 
wasted;  the  few  converts  the  priests  made  were 
treated  by  their  brothers  in  arms  with  such  con- 
tempt and  ignominy  as  deterred  others  from  simi- 
lar renegadism.  Even  the  Irish  officers  whom  the 
king  introduced  into  the  army,  served  rather,  from 
the  aversion  borne  them,  to  weaken  the  royal  influ- 
ence. It  happened,  on  the  very  day  that  the  trial 
of  the  bishops  was  triumphantly  concluded,  James 
had  reviewed  the  troops,  and  had  just  retired  into 
the  tent  of  Lord  Feversham  their  commander,  when 
he  was  surprised  to  hear  a  great  uproar  in  the  camp, 

*  Borillon ;  Macauley,  Hist,  of  England  ;  Dalrymple. 


THROUGH  THE  WILDERNESS.        481 

attended  by  the  most  extravagant  symptoms  of  tu- 
tQultuous  joy.  He  inquired  the  cause,  and  was  told 
by  Feversham,  *'Tis  nothing  but  the  rejoicings  of 
the  soldiers  over  the  acquittal  of  the  bishops.' 
*Do  you  call  that  nothing?'  replied  the  irritated 
monarch;  then  he  added  darkly,  'But  so  much  the 
worse  for  them.'  "* 

Every  day  the  battle  between  the  king  and  the 
people  increased  in  fierceness  and  in  venom.  Eo- 
manism  strutted  in  the  royal  purple,  and  clutching 
the  stolen  liberties  of  England,  leered  and  mocked 
from  the  very  throne.  There  was  but  one  bright 
spot  in  the  leaden  horizon :  James  was  as  yet  child- 
less ;  his  daughter  Mary  was  heir  presumptive ;  she 
was  a  Protestant ;  and  in  1677  Charles  11.  had  given 
her  in  marriage  to  the  prince  of  Orange  at  the  con- 
clusion of  a  bitter  war  with  Holland,  as  a  sign  of 
amity  and  the  seal  of  peace.t  The  hope  of  a  juster 
rule  under  her  auspices,  gave  England  patience  to 
endure  this  night  of  tyranny  and  to  await  the  dawn 
of  a  jocund  morrow. 

One  day  this  ray  of  hope  was  quenched.  It  was 
announced  that  a  son  had  been  born  to  James.J 
This  event,  which  the  king  and  his  cabal  had  al- 
ways regarded  as  certain  to  garland  their  cause 
and  insure  success,  proved  fatal.  The  royal  babe 
was  pronounced  to  be  supposititious.    It  was  af- 


o  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  583. 

t  Evelyn's  Diary ;  Dalrymple  ;  Fox,  Reign  of  James  IT. ;  Hist, 
des  Revolutions  d'Angleterre. 

X  Dalrymple  ;  Diary  of  Henry,  Earl  of  Clarendon ;  Bomot 

Pnrttan«.  21 


482 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


firmed  that  a  monarcli  who  had  scrupled  at  no 
crime  in  his  career  of  bigotry,  would  hardly  balk 
at  the  sacrifice  of  his  heretic  daughter  when  she 
threatened  to  thwart  his  passionate  determination 
to  anchor  the  island  in  the  Latin  faith.* 

A  coalition  was  formed.  Secret  negotiations 
were  opened  with  William  of  Orange.  The  church- 
men and  the  aristocracy,  both  robbed  and  trodden 
under  foot  by  the  royal  madman  at  the  helm  of 
state,  were  the  first  movers  in  this  dangerous  diplo- 
matic game,  and  they  used  every  imaginable  argu- 
ment to  win  recruits.t  It  was  esteemed  moment- 
ously important  to  secure  the  active  support  of  the 
non-conformists.  Lloyd,  bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  held 
frequent  consultations  with  their  clergy.  The  secret 
of  the  Dutch  negotiations  was  cautiously  communi- 
cated, and  Lloyd  said,  "  I  hope  the  Protestant  dis- 
senters will  concur  in  promoting  the  common  inter- 
est ;  you  and  we  are  brethren :  we  have  indeed  been 
angry  brethren,  but  we  have  seen  our  foUy,  and  are 
resolved  that  we  win  keep  up  our  domestic  quarrels 
no  longer.":]:  These  words  were  not  the  empty  wind 
of  a  desperate  schemer  anxious  to  inveigle  dupes 
into  his  plot ;  they  echoed  not  the  unanimous,  but 
the  most  authoritative  voice  of  the  English  church. § 

The  Puritans,  anxious  for  the  future,  thrilled  by 
the  glowing  legends  of  the  past,  earnest,  patriotic, 
joined  the  coalition ;  trusting  more,  however,  to  the 


o  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  584 ;  Burnet ;  Evelyn's  Diary. 

t  Ibid.  X  Neale,  vol.  2,  pp.  621,  622. 

§  Ibid.,  Mackintosh,  Fox. 


THROUGH  THE  WILDERNESS.        483 

tolerant  principles  of  WiUiam  of  Orange,  a  prince 
who  had  been  educated  in  their  creed,  than  to  the 
caresses  of  their  inveterate  foes.* 

The  Whigs  opposed  James  precisely  as  Hamp- 
den-and  Pym  had  fought  his  father;  in  their  eyes 
the  rights  of  the  commonwealth  were  not  to  be  bal- 
anced by  the  usurped  prerogatives  of  a  thrice-per- 
jured king. 

The  Tories,  frightened  into  inconsistency,  no 
longer  embalmed  the  slavish  dogma  of  passive  obe- 
dience in  matchless  panegyrics,  but,  spurred  by  the 
instinct  of  .self-preservation,  they  too  deserted  the 
court,  and  took  on  their  lips  the  watchwords  of  the 
revolution. 

Faction  was  put  in  the  cradle  and  rocked  to 
sleep ;  England  at  large  united  to  invite  the  inter- 
vention of  the  Dutch  stadtholder.t 

William  of  Orange  was  the  most  remarkable 
man  of  that  epoch.  A  scion  of  the  princely  house 
of  Nassau,  which  had  stood  conspicuous  among  the 
noblest  of  the  ruling  families  of  Germany  from  the 
dawn  of  modern  history,  he  was  early  initiated  into 
the  mysteries  of  the  cabinet  and  the  subtle  tactics 
of  war.  Domestic  broils  sharpened  his  wits,  and 
he  studied  politics  under  the  consummate  admin- 
istration of  De  Witt.  His  first  laurels  were  won 
in  defending  his  country  against  the  French  stand- 
ards of  Turenne  and  the  great  Cond^ ;  and  now,  at 
thirty-nine,  he  governed  the  United  Netherlands 

o  Hume,  vol.  2,  p.  588. 

t  Mackintosh,  Fox,  Dalrymple,  D'Araux,  Burnet. 


"V  \        1.1 


484         HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

with  an  eclat  wliicli  rivalled  the  brilliant  days  of  the 
republic's  birth* 

Thoughtful,  of  ungovemable  spirit,  persuasive 
though  taciturn,  of  simple  character,  yet  maintain- 
ing due  dignity  and  becoming  magnificence  in  his 
ofl&cial  station,  an  able  captain,  a  wise  statesman,  a 
tolerant  Christian,  William  of  Orange  was  the  pre-^ 
server  of  his  own  country,  the  head  of  the  Protes- 
tant interest  in  Christendom,  and  the  asserter  of 
the  liberties  of  Europe.t 

With  habitual  caution,  he  took  time  to  consider 
the  invitation  of  the  English  coahtion^  but  finally 
he  decided  to  intervene.  An  army  was  equipped, 
ferried  across  the  Channel,  landed  in  England ;  and 
with  William  and  Mary  at  its  head,  it  trod  in  tri- 
umph from  Torbay  to  the  metropolis.^ 

In  the  mean  time,  James,  as  inefficient  in  a  crisis 
as  he  was  haughty  in  a  calm,  played  the  meanest 
comedy  in  which  a  crowned  head  ever  figured. 
Without  an  effort,  without  a  struggle  worthy  of  the 
name,  he  skulked  out  of  England  into  rrance,«and 
sued  for  an  asylum  at  the  foot  of  Louis  XlVth's 
throne.§ 

The  royal  dastard  was  solemnly  declared  to 
have  deserted  the  throne ;  WiUiam  was  voted  the 
crown  jointly  with  queen  Mary,  and  the  glorious 

*  D'Estraeb's  Memoires  de  la  Hollande  ;  Vanderrynkt ;  D'A- 
ranx ;  Temple,  in  United  Netherlands,  chs.  4,  5,  passim, 
f  Mackintosh,  p.  395 ;  Dalrymple,  vol.  2,  book  5,  p.  2. 
X  D'Araux ;  Eveljrn's  Diary. 
§  Ibid.,  Mackintosh,  Fox,  Borillon,  Pardee's  Court  of  Louis 

xrv. 


THKOUGH  THE  WILDERNESS. 


485 


revolution  of  1688  was  accompUshed — victoria  sine 
dade. 

On  the  21st  of  December,  1688,  three  days  after 
the  arrival  of  the  prince  of  Orange  at  St.  James', 
the  bishop  of  London,  accompanied  by  a  mixed 
delegation  o^  churchmen  and  dissenters,  waited 
upon  the  liberator  and  congratulated  him  on  his 
success.*  Two  weeks  later  a  distinct  body  of  nigh 
one  hundred  non-conformist  clergymen  were  intro- 
duced to  William,  and  to  their  cordial  address  he 
made  this  reply :  "  Gentlemen,  my  great  end  in  this 
expedition  has  been  the  preservation  of  the  Protes- 
tant religion,  and  with  the  Almighty's  assistance 
and  permission,  so  to  defend  and  support  it  as 
might  give  it  strength  and  reputation  throughout 
the  world,  sufficient  to  preserve  it  from  the  insult 
and  oppression  of  its  most  implacable  enemies,  and 
that  more  immediately  in  these  kingdoms  of  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  and  Ireland.  I  will  use  my  utmost 
endeavors  so  to  settle  and  cement  all  different  per- 
suasions of  Protestants  in  such  a  bond  of  love  and 
community  as  may  contribute  to  the  lasting  secu- 
rity and  enjoyment  of  temporals  and  spirituals  to 
all  sincere  professors  of  that  holy  religion."t 

The  echo  of  this  speech  was  the  biU  of  tolera- 
tion, passed  early  in  1689,  and  which  excused  dis- 
senters from  attending  the  Estabhshed  church,  and 
removed  the  ban  from  separate  conventicles. J 

o  Burnet's  Own  Times  ;  Neale. 

f  D'Araux  ;  Burnet's  Own  Times  ;  Neale's  Puritans. 

i  Burnet's  Own  Times,  pp.  529-532 ;  Grey's  Pari.  Debates. 


\ 


484 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THROUGH  THE  WILDERNESS. 


485 


with  an  eclat  wliicli  rivalled  the  brilliant  days  of  the 
republic's  birth.* 

Thoughtful,  of  ungovernable  spirit,  persuasive 
though  taciturn,  of  simple  character,  yet  maintain- 
ing due  dignity  and  becoming  magnificence  in  his 
official  station,  an  able  captain,  a  wise  statesman,  a 
tolerant  Christian,  William  of  Orange  was  the  pre-^ 
server  of  his  own  country,  the  head  of  the  Protes- 
tant interest  in  Christendom,  and  the  asserter  of 
the  liberties  of  Europe.t 

With  habitual  caution,  he  took  time  to  consider 
the  invitation  of  the  English  coalition »  but  finally 
he  decided  to  intervene.  An  army  was  equipped, 
ferried  across  the  Channel,  landed  in  England ;  and 
with  William  and  Mary  at  its  head,  it  trod  in  tri- 
umph from  Torbay  to  the  metropolis.:|: 

In  the  mean  time,  James,  as  inefficient  in  a  crisis 
as  he  was  haughty  in  a  calm,  played  the  meanest 
comedy  in  which  a  crowned  head  ever  figured. 
Without  an  effort,  without  a  struggle  worthy  of  the 
name,  he  skulked  out  of  England  into  France,«and 
sued  for  an  asylum  at  the  foot  of  Louis  XlVth's 
throne.§ 

The  royal  dastard  was  solemnly  declared  to 
have  deserted  the  throne ;  William  was  voted  the 
crown  jointly  with  queen  Mary,  and  the  glorious 

*  D'Estraeb's  Memoires  de  la  Hollande ;  Vanderrjrnkt ;  D'A- 
ranx ;  Temple,  in  United  Netherlands,  chs.  4,  5,  passim. 

t  Mackintosh,  p.  395 ;  Dalrymple,  vol.  2,  book  5,  p.  2. 

X  D'Araux ;  Evelyn's  Diary. 

§  Ibid.,  Mackintosh,  Fox,  Borillon,  Pardee's  Court  of  Lotiia 
XIV. 


T 


revolution  of  1688  was  accomplished — victoria  sine 
dade. 

On  the  21st  of  December,  1688,  three  days  after 
the  arrival  of  the  prince  of  Orange  at  St.  James', 
the  bishop  of  London,  accompanied  by  a  mixed 
delegation  oi^  churchmen  and  dissenters,  waited 
upon  the  liberator  and  congratulated  him  on  his 
success.*  Two  weeks  later  a  distinct  body  of  nigh 
one  hundred  non-conformist  clergymen  were  intro- 
duced to  William,  and  to  their  cordial  address  he 
made  this  reply :  "  Gentlemen,  my  great  end  in  this 
expedition  has  been  the  preservation  of  the  Protes- 
tant religion,  and  with  the  Almighty's  assistance 
and  permission,  so  to  defend  and  support  it  as 
might  give  it  strength  and  reputation  throughout 
the  world,  sufficient  to  preserve  it  from  the  insult 
and  oppression  of  its  most  implacable  enemies,  and 
that  more  immediately  in  these  kingdoms  of  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  and  Ireland.  I  will  use  my  utmost 
endeavors  so  to  settle  and  cement  all  different  per- 
suasions of  Protestants  in  such  a  bond  of  love  and 
community  as  may  contribute  to  the  lasting  secu- 
rity and  enjoyment  of  temporals  and  spuituals  to 
all  sincere  professors  of  that  holy  religion."t 

The  echo  of  this  speech  was  the  bill  of  tolera- 
tion, passed  early  in  1689,  and  which  excused  dis- 
senters from  attending  the  Established  church,  and 
removed  the  ban  from  separate  conventicles. J 

o  Burnet's  Own  Times  ;  Neale. 

f  D'Araux  ;  Burnet's  Own  Times  ;  Neale's  Puritans. 

X  Burnet's  Own  Times,  pp.  529-532 ;  Grey's  Pari.  Pebates. 


486 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


Here,  beneath  the  benediction  of  this  toleration, 
ends  the  distinctive  history  of  the  English  Puritans. 
Even  under  the  Eestoration,  Puritait  had  begun  to 
be  merged  in  Dissenter  and  Non-covforrnist  Now 
the  good  old  name  was  dropped  in  Britain ;  but  not 
so  the  spirit.  That  still  lives,  and  animating  twice 
five  thousand  pulpits,  it  is  fadeless,  immortal. 

The  revolution  of  1688  marked  that  age  and 
moulded  the  future :  William  of  Orange  was  its 
chief;  to  that  illustrious  statesman,  under  God, 
Puritanism  owes  temporal  and  spiritual  liberty, 
and  we  may  agree  with  Cromwell,  that  "  he  sings 
sweetly  who  sings  a  song  of  reconciliation  between 
those  interests." 

If  now,  under  the  shelter  of  this  toleration,  we 
pause  to  weigh  the  spoils  and  count  the  trophies  of 
this  tremendous  struggle,  smeared  with  the  blood 
of  martyrs,  dignified  by  the  sufferings  of  saints,  we 
shall  find  that  the  triumph  of  Puritanism  was  the 
result  of  its  rigid  attachment  to  the  moral  forces. 
The  hair  of  this  Samson  was  theology ;  shorn  of 
that,  the  Philistines  might  easily  have  bound  it. 
But  no  Delilah  could  coax  it  to  repose  its  head  on 
the  treacherous  lap.  It  knew  the  secret  of  its 
strength,  and  guarded  it  with  austere  care. 

It  has  been  well  said,  that  the  history  of  Enghsh 
Puritanism  is  the  story  of  a  theological  inovement, 
and  of  a  great  national  struggle.  These  are  two 
parts  of  one  grand  whole ;  they  are  as  closely  wed- 
ded to  each  other  as  Austin  was  to  his  Nehridius, 
of  whom  he  said,  "  They  had  one  soul  in  two  bodies." 


I 


THROUGH  THE  WILDERNESS.        487 

Old  Firmin,  in  his  quaint  dedicatory  epistle  to  John 
Barrington  of  Eedgewood,  in  the  "  Keal  Christian," 
which  Cotton  Mather  pronounced  "  a  golden  book," 
said,  referring  to  his  friend's  spirit,  ever  active  to 
promote  the  good  of  others,  "  Methinks  the  town  is 
not  at  home  while  Mr.  Barrington  is  out  of  town." 
Puritanism  is  not  at  home  if  its  rehgious  aspect  be 
divorced  from  its  political  manifestations.  It  not 
only  entered  into  and  strongly  colored  the  national 
life  of  its  epoch,  but,  overflowing  contemporaneous 
channels,  it  has  spread  into  all  lands  and  ages.  It 
has  not  only  given  strength  and  passion  to  the  re- 
ligion, but  to  the  literature  and  the  aspirations  of 
Christendom.  For  Puritanism  is  not  a  dead  an- 
tique. It  did  not  die  under  the  edict  of  toleration ; 
its  life  was  not  'cut  short  by  a  date  :  passing  over 
into  modern  dissent,  it  has  toned  and  emphasized 
the  ethics  of  later  times  as  potentially  as  it  did  the 
thought  and  expression  of  the  era  of  Hampden  and 
of  Baxter.  Two  results  of  Puritanism,  the  Com- 
monwealth and  the  Eevolution  of  1688,  consoHdated 
English  freedom;  these  produced,  at  a  fitting  inter- 
val, the  independence  of  the  Puritan  colonies  of  our 
fathers  in  1776.  The  American  Eevolution,  in  its 
turn,  did  much  to  precipitate  the  first  great  Eevo- 
lution of  France ;  and  if,  as  Carlyle  has  said,  "  The 
eighteenth  century  blew  out  its  brains  in  the  French 
Eevolution,"  the  suicide  was  owing  to  a  lack  of  Pu- 
ritan principle  in  the  leaders,  juggled  by  the  "  god- 
dess of  reason,"  and  of  Puritan  training  in  the  sans 
culottes  who  went  raving  through  the  streets  of  the 


i 


488 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


THROUGH  THE  WILDERNESS.       489 


capital,  and  smeared  the  Parisian  pavements  with 
gore. 

Yet  abortive  as  that  revolution  seemed,  it  has 
accomplished  much ;  and  all  the  subsequent  emeutes 
and  attempted  settlements  in  Continental  Europe 
are  returns  of  the  same  "irrepressible  conflict," 
which  cannot  apparently  find  a  close  and  a  peace- 
ful issue  till  the  Bible  of  the  Puritans  be  every- 
where consulted,  and  the  God  and  Kedeemer  of  the 
Puritans  be  everywhere  recognized. 

Nor  is  the  Puritan  spirit  "  cabined,  cribbed,  con- 
fined "  within  the  limits  of  any  specific  sect ;  it  un- 
derlies and  vivifies  the  whole  evangelical  movement 
of  modem  times.  It  is  the  spiritual  ground  which 
the  gospel  athletes  of  all  denominations  must  .touch 
to  regain  their  strength  exhausted  in  the  struggle 
with  materialism.  Most  of  the  famous  divines  of 
the  eighteenth  century  were  connected  with  the  Pu- 
ritans, either  through  blood  relationship,  or  through 
the  higher  kinship  of  the  soul.*   Watts,  the  "singer 

®  *'It  is  a  fact  not  generally  known,  that  the  most  remarkable 
men  of  the  eighteenth  centmy,  both  Conformists  and  Non-con- 
formists, were  the  lineal  descendants  of  the  ejected  clergy,  or  of 
their  Non-conformist  adherents.  This  is  illustrated  in  the  histo- 
ries of  Archbishop  Seeker,  Bishop  Butler,  Dr.  Newcome,  William 
Burkitt,  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  Matthew  Henry,  Jeremiah 
Jones,  Dr.  Doddridge,  John  Priestley,  Dr.  Nathaniel  Lardner, 
and  Dr.  Watts.  Of  these.  Seeker,  Butler,  Jones,  and  Chandler, 
were  all  trained  as  dissenting  ministers  by  Mr.  Samuel  Janes  of 
Gloucester  ;  and  it  was  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  while  under 
Mr.  Janes'  roof,  that  Butler  gave  the  first  indication  of  that  power 
which  appears  so  conspicuous  in  the  *  Analogy  of  Religion.'  Seek- 
er, afterwards  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  first  essayed  his  powers 
as  a  preacher  as  a  candidate  for  the  Non-conformist  ministry  at 


of  Israel,"  imbibed  their  spirit  with  his  mother's 
milk  as  she  suckled  him  on  the  stone  steps  of  the 
jail  where  his  father,  a  Non-conformist,  was  incar- 
cerated. Wesley's  mother,  to  whom  he  owed  so 
much,  was  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Annesley,  a  clergy- 
man who  was  ejected  from  St.  Giles',  Cripplegate, 
London,  in  1662 ;  and  his  Methodism,  which  was 
greeted  by  the  ribald  sneers  of  giddy  Oxford,  was, 
in  an  important  sense,  the  flowering  out  of  those 
austere  Puritan  tenets  with  which  he  became  famil- 
iar when  a  boy.  Whitefield,  though  not  of  Puritan 
descent,  still  valued  the  distinctive  principles  of 
Owen,  of  Howe,  and  of  Calamy,  and  it  is  said  that 
he  read  Matthew  Henry's  "  Commentaries  on  the 
Scriptures  "  through  upon  his  knees. 

The  influence  of  Puritanism  has  been  and  still 
is  most  marked  in  the  evangelical  movement  within 
the  English  Establishment.  The  "low-church" 
•stands  almost  upon  the  plane  of  Baxter ;  and  Wil- 
berforce,  in  his  "  Plea  for  Eeligion,"  commends  the 
perusal  of  the  Puritan  writers  with  emphatic  ear- 
nestness. So  in  the  awakening  within  the  Scotch 
established  Presbyterian  church  :  Chalmers,  whose 
phrase  conjured  the  wondering  stars  to  disclose 

Boston.  Newcome,  archbishop  of  Armagh,  whose  various  theo- 
logical works  reflect  so  much  credit  on  his  learning  and  industry, 
was  a  descendant  of  the  Bev.  Henry  Newcome,  M.  A.,  ejected 
from  Manchester.  WiUiam  Burkitt,  whose  'Expository  Notes 
upon  the  New  Testament'  have  passed  through  almost  as  many 
editions  as  the  'Pilgrim's  Progress,'  was  the  son  of  Miles  Burkitt, 
M.  A.,  ejected  from  Neatishead,  in  Norfolk,  for  Non-conformity." 
Brewer's  Men  of  the  Exodus  of  1662,  pp.  64,  65.    London,  1862. 

21* 


490 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  PUBITANS. 


their  virgin  mysteries,  placed  the  highest  value 
upon  the  Puritan  doctrinaires ^  exhibited  the  great- 
c  st  relish  for  their  works,  and  was  tinctured  by  their 
lone  and  method. 

Puritanism,  crossing  the  water  with  the  Pil- 
grims, created  Edwards  and  inspired  Brainerd.  It 
was  the  soul  of  the  revivals  of  the  colonial  epoch. 
It  nerved  the  hearts  and  strengthened  the  hands  of 
the  men  who  jeoparded  their  "  lives,  their  fortunes, 
and  their  sacred  honor  "  in  the  days  of  1776 ;  and 
in  our  second  Bevolution  of  1861,  the  grand  provi- 
dential result  of  which  has  been  to  stereotype  into 
active  law  that  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  of 
which  our  fathers  dreamed,  the  war-cry  was  the  same 
that  rang  over  Naseby  and  Marston-moor.  Foote 
and  Mitchell  were  regular  Cromwellians  dug  up 
from  beneath  the  scaffold  of  Charles  I.  And  if  we 
recross  the  water,  we  shall  find  Montalembert,  him- 
self a  Frenchman  and  a  Komanist,  referring  to, 
Havelock  as  a  "  resurrected  Puritan." 

Puritanism  is  to  a  great  extent  the  soul  of  modern 
missions ;  and  with  the  Bible  in  it  and  behind  it,  it 
strikes,  through  the  pulpit  and  the  press,  the  key- 
note of  the  progressive  civilization  and  the  Chris- 
tian enlightenment  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It 
has  its  million  voices ;  and  loud  above  the  babble 
of  materialistic  philosophy,  it  shouts  the  glorious 
watchwords  of  what  Milton  loved  to  call  **the  good 
old  cause." 

Let  us  reverently  thank  God  that  Puritanism  is 
a  living  and  a  growing  power  of  our  epoch ;  for  it 


I 


1 


THROUQH  THE  WILDERNESS.        491 

is  an  unimpeachable  historic  fact,  that  those  com- 
munities which  have  been  moulded  by  principles 
essentiallv  Puritanical,  have  always  written  excelsior 
upon  their  foreheads  in  the  race  of  material  prog- 
ress, and  clasped  the  highest  moral  standards  to 
their  hearts.    This  the  most  opposite  scholars  have 
conceded.     Mozley,  in  his  "  Augustinian  Doctrine 
of  Predestination,"  and  Merivale,  in  his  "  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Northern  Nations,"  admit  it  at  length ; 
yet  neither  of  these  thinkers  is  a  Puritan.     High 
views  of  God,  and  stern  judgments  as  to  man's 
dependence  and  demerit,  have  ever,  in  Britain,  in 
Scotland,  in  Holland,  in  Protestant  Germany,  in 
Huguenot  France,  in  our  United  States,  and  in  the 
older  Geneva,  produced   a  decency,  a  gravity,  a 
firmness,  and  a  delicacy  of  moral  character  which 
cannot  be  excelled,  and  which  perhaps  may  not  be 
paralleled  elsewhere. 

The  cause  of  the  Puritans  was  the  cause  of  spir- 
itual Christianity.  Their  whole  career  was  colored 
by  their  radiant  faith.  They  "  trusted  God,  and 
kept  their  powder  dry."  It  is  this  trait  which  has 
given  them  so  wide  and  so  beneficent  an  influence 
on  either  continent.  It  is  this  which  has  detached 
men  from  childish  devotion  to  mere  forms,  and  has 
won  them  to  grasp  at  the  essence  of  their  princi- 
ples. It  is  this  which  has*  persuaded  the  highest 
thinkers  to  protest  against  the  grovelling  tenets  of 
materialism,  and  which  has  taught  society  to  ap- 
peal fi'om  the  present  to  the  eternal.  Beligion, 
stripped  of  its  presumption,  cleansed  from  its  impu- 


492        HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

rities,  announces  its  dependence  upon  God,  lifts  its 
sweet  face  to  the  stars,  and  the  Father  kisses  it 
upon  its  forehead. 

As  regards  the  Puritans,  "  the  odious  and  ridic- 
ulous parts  of  their  character,"  as  Macauley  has 
told  us,  "  lie  on  the  surface.  He  who  runs  may- 
read  them ;  nor  have  there  been  wanting  attentive 
and  malicious  observers  to  point  them  out.  For 
many  years  after  the  Kestoration,  they  were  the 
theme  of  unmeasured  invective  and  derision.  They 
were  exposed  to  the  utmost  licentiousness  of  the 
press  and  of  the  stage,  at  the  time  when  the  press 
and  the  stage  were  most  licentious.  They  were  not 
men  of  letters ;  they  were,  as  a  body,  unpopular ; 
they  were  therefore  abandoned  without  reserve  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  the  satirists  and  dramatists. 
The  ostentatious  simplicity  of  their  dress,  their 
sober  aspect,  their  nasal  twang,  their  detestation 
of  polite  amusements,  became  the  game  of  the 
laughers.  But  it  is  not  from  the  laughers  alone 
that  the  philosophy  of  history  is  to  be  learned. 

"  The  Puritans  were  men  whose  minds  had  de- 
rived a  peculiar  character  from  the  daily  contem- 
plation of  superior  beings  and  eternal  interests. 
Not  content  with  acknowledging  in  general  terms 
an  overruling  Providence,  they  habitually  ascribed 
every  event  to  the  will  of  the  Great  Being,  for  whose 
power  nothing  was  too  vast,  for  whose  inspection 
nothing  was  too  minute.  To  know  him,  to  serve 
him,  to  enjoy  him,  was  with  them  the  great  end  of 
existence.    They  rejected  with  contempt  the  cere- 


THROUGH  THE  WILDERNESS.       493 

monious  homage  which  others  substituted  for  the 
pure  worship  of  the  soul.    Instead  of  catching  oc- 
casional glimpses  of  the  Deity  through  an  obscur- 
ing veil,  they  aspired  to  gaze  full  on  his  intolerable 
brightness,  and  to  commune  with  him  face  to  face. 
Hence  originated  their  contempt  for  terrestrial  dis- 
tinctions.   The  difference  between  the  greatest  and 
the  meanest  of  mankind  seemed  to  vanish,  when 
compared  with  the  boundless  interval  which  sep- 
arated the  whole  race  from  Him  on  whom  their 
eyes  were  constantly  fixed.     They  recognized  no 
title  to  superiority  but  His  favor :  and  confident  of 
that  favor,  they  despised  all  the  accomplishments 
and  all  the  dignities  of  the  world.     The  Puritan 
was  made  up  of  two  different  men :  the  one  all  self- 
abasement,  penitence,  gratitude,  and  sacred  pas- 
sion ;  the  other  proud,  calm,  inflexible,  sagacious. 
He  prostrated  himself  in  the  dust  before  his  Maker, 
but  he  set  his  heel  on  the  neck  of  his  king.    The 
intensity  of  his  feelings  on  one  subject  made  him 
tranquil  on  any  other.     One  overpowering  senti- 
ment had  subjected  to  itseK  pity  and  hatred,  am- 
bition and  fear.    Death  had  lost  its  terrors,  and 
pleasure  its  charms.     The  Puritan  had  his  smiles, 
his  tears,  his  raptures,  his  sorrows,  but  they  were 
not  for  the  things  of  this  world.    Piety  had  cleared 
his  mind  from  every  vulgar  passion  and  prejudice, 
and  raised  him  above  the  influence  of  danger  and 

of  corruption." 

But  if  the  Puritans  were  oblivious  of  the  otium 
cum  dignitate  of  life,  they  were  never  unmindful  of 


494 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  PUEITANS. 


its  stern  duties  or  of  its  necessities.  Above  all,  they 
were  actors ;  they  were  not  speculators  in  divinity; 
they  were  not  hucksters  in  politics;  they  did  not 
take  upon  their  lips  unmeaning  oaths,  as  little  to  be 
trusted  as  the  "By  these.hilts"  of  an  Alsatian  dicer; 
they  did  not  mimic  the  outward  sanctity  of  the  Ital- 
ian faith,  and  become  as  constant  at  prayers  as  a 
priest,  as  heedless  of  God  as  an  atheist ;  they  did 
not  attempt,  like  Jewish  pedlars,  to  trade  in  the 
relics  of  by-gone  saints,  or  to  masquerade  in  the 
garb  of  their  fathers'  piety.  But  if  their  principles 
lay  scattered  broadcast  in  the  centuries  behind 
them,  their  application  was  all  their  own ;  and  we 
read  their  history  "  in  the  broad,  legible  steps  of 
lives  whose  polar  star  was  duty,  whose  goal  was 
liberty,  and  whose  staff  was  justice."  Before  their 
time,  men  had  been  creeping  along  the  Mediterra- 
nean of  thought,  from  headland  to  headland,  in 
their  timidity;  the  Puritans  launched  boldly  out 
into  the  Atlantic,  and  trusted  God. 

The  results  of  this  militant  faith  soon  appeared 
in  a  renovated  church  and  a  liberalized  state.  The 
English  Constitution  is  lai'gely  indebted  to  Puri- 
tanism for  many  of  its  grandest  checks  on  despot- 
ism. That  element  first  sketched  out  the  bound- 
ary line  between  liberty  and  the  prerogative  in  the 
"debatable  land"  of  the  British  polity.  Liberty 
regulated  by  law  is  the  secret  of  Anglo-Saxon 
progress,  and  we  owe  it  to  Puritanism. 

Common-schools  were  born  of  that  democracy 
of  which  the  Puritans  were  enamoured ;  and  these, 


I 


THEOUGH  THE  WILDEENESS.        4^5 

with  piety,  are  the  divine  sheet-anchor  of  aU  com- 
monwealths. The  Puritans  saved  the  seventeenth 
century  from  a  relapse  into  popery;  and  it  was 
owing  to  their  steady,  unshrinking  faith  that  when 
Loyola  organized  Jesuitism  and  made  his  reactive 
assault  upon  the  Protestant  idea.  Western  Europe 
came  out  of  the  ordeal  triumphant. 

Of  course  the  Puritans  had  faults ;  they  were 
men,  and  they  shared  the  imperfections  of  human- 
ity. There  are  no  angels  in  the  records  of  our  race. 
Wherever  we  may  search,  we  shall  find  at  best  but 
sinful  men ;  still  "we  find  men  to  whose  might,  piety, 
daring,  and  disinterested  suffering  for  those  about 
them,  the  succeeding  generations  owe  the  larger 
share  of  their  blessings." 

Nor  is  it  just  to  measure  the  Puritans  of  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  by  the  standards 
of  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth.  Measured  by  the 
tests  of  their  own  epoch,  they  need  not  balk  the 
trial;  indeed  they  tower  above  their  contemporaries 
as  mount  Blanc  towers  above  its  brother  Alps. 

Still,  after  all,  the  Puritans  are  to  be  regarded 
m  posscy  not  in  esse— in  the  possibilities  which  lay 
wrapped  up  in  their  epoch.  The  children  are  the 
glory  of  the  fathers.  The  best  tribute  to  the  Puri- 
tans is  a  civilization  bound,  if  possible,  to  be  better 
than  the  past— bound  to  be  what  Vane  and  Baxter 
and  Latimer  would  be,  were  they  alive  to-day  and 
surrounded  by  our  opportunities. 

'T  is  said  that,  when  some  one  sent  a  cracked 
plate  to  China  as  a  pattern  for  a  new  tea-set,  the 


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496        HISTOEY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

stupid  Chinese  imitated  the  original  so  exactly  that 
each  plate  in  the  new  set  had  a  crack  in  it.  Such 
imitation  is  not  discipleship.  But  in  that  unshrink- 
ing love  of  liberty  which  characterized  the  deyotees 
of  the  <*good  old  cause ;"  in  that  stern,  uncompro- 
mising faith  which  was  the  cloud  by  day  and  the 
pillar  of  fire  by  night,  which  led  our  fathers  in  the 
tangled  way  through  the  wilderness  unto  the  Celes- 
tial City ;  in  that  faithful  proclamation  of  the  gos- 
pel, that  love  of  God,  that  affection  for  the  only 
begotten  Son,  the  Saviour  of  mankind,  which  in- 
spired our  illustrious  sires—in  these,  the  beatitudes 
of  life,  we  are  solemnly  called  to  imitate  the  Puri- 
tans, who  were  the  impersonation  of  God's  order 
and  God's  law,  moulding  a  better  future,  and  set- 
ting for  it  an  example. 


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